


The Knights and Paladins of Voltron

by YesNo_couldbeSo



Series: The Paladins of Hogwarts [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28092411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesNo_couldbeSo/pseuds/YesNo_couldbeSo
Summary: It's the third year for Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk while Allura's OWLs are coming up. Shiro's safely there too still under the pretense of his death. This year is one rollercoaster of emotion for everybody in different ways.
Relationships: Acxa & Ezor & Lotor & Narti & Zethrid (Voltron), Adam & Keith (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Allura & Veronica (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Veronica (Voltron)
Series: The Paladins of Hogwarts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866352
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Full Blown Rivalry

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for staying with the story and I hope you enjoy this year, it's one of my favourites. They're all growing up stronger, gayer, and swearier, because that's a word. This book's gonna be more klance development focused, which is probably what you're here for.

Keith walked through the brick wall into platform 9 ¾. He never really saw the appeal of running; you could crash into someone on the other side or a muggle hanging around there, also you could lose control of your trolley. It just seemed so impractical.

Adam walked through behind him; Keith knew he’d been holding back tears the entire tube journey. The summer had been torture. He was excited to spend time with Adam again naturally, but he had to walk on eggshells around him regarding school and his supposedly deceased brother. It hurt so much to see Adam in the state that he was, trying to carry on.

Not to mention Keith wasn’t sure if he would have friends to go back to, or if things would go back to the way they were before. Though he hated to admit it, it was actually nice to spend time with others the same age as him who cared whether he lived or died. He still wasn’t so sure about Lance though.

He scanned the seething masses of students and parents for any sign of his friends, yes, friends. He caught a glimpse of Pidge’s trademark hairstyle, which used to belong to her brother, near the wall. Gods, that girl is short. No wonder it took him a couple of minutes to find her. Her mother kissed her on the forehead and went back to the wall to leave, she didn’t seem to notice him and Adam.

Before he walked over to the train, Adam grabbed his arm. “You wouldn’t lie to me, right Keith?” he asked. His blood ran cold, this was the conversation he’d been dreading for months. “Of course not, why would I?” He was incredibly grateful for the even tone but he knew his voice was close to betraying him.

“It’s just, rumours are being spread around saying Takashi’s back at Hogwarts. Haxus just got fired which could make it true but the castle isn’t letting anyone in. I’ll ask you once, is Shiro alive and at Hogwarts?” He sounded so incredibly desperate; Keith wanted to cry.

How could he do this to his older brother? The man who stood by Shiro no matter the cost, the man who accepted him with Shiro, who literally adopted him and practically saved his life. He tried for a straight face, it was for the students, the ones captured by the galra and Shiro’s own safety.

“No. I’m sorry. I want him to be there and alive as much as you do.” Adam pulled him into a hug.

“It’s so hard Keith. The ministry said that the man I love is dead, then a bunch of kids with no proof say he’s alive. I know you wouldn’t lie to me, but god Keith hope hurts so bad.” Keith squeezed him back, eyes growing heavy with tears of sorrow, regret and grief. If only he knew the truth, and how much it also hurt Keith. They broke away from each other.

“Hey Keith, missed you. Adam, long time no see,” said Pidge walking over. “Hey Katie, how have you been holding up, didn’t know you cut your hair,” Adam said attempting to be cheerful.

“Yeah, I cut it last year. I’m good, friends and teachers were really supportive so I’m dealing well,” she started to look pained, Keith noticed it, but he could tell Adam didn’t. “So, how you been doing?”

“Relatively well, I think. I won’t keep you any longer Keith.” Pidge must have spotted the others. “Hunk! Lance! Over here!” she yelled. By the train were Lance and Hunk with their families. Lance had been jabbering away to his parents and sister while Hunk had been hugging his siblings goodbye.

They looked up and waved to Pidge, Lance jumping into the air with excitement. Then Lance’s smile turned to a frown when he spotted Keith. Keith scowled back. He felt a hand on his shoulder and Adam leaned down to whisper something in his ear.

“That lanky one’s really cute, is he Latino? Damn Keith.” Keith felt heat rise to his cheeks.

“What?” he shrieked, Adam’s smile widened, his eyes glittered with mirth “He is not! No way! Stop smiling!” He smirked and walked out of the platform.

Keith really hoped that Pidge hadn’t heard, he turned back to her slightly pink and found her also smirking. She probably couldn’t have heard what Adam said but based on his reaction, she could guess. The heat slowly fell from his face and he and Pidge walked over to the others.

Lance and Hunk’s families left together, leaving the students to join their friends. Veronica whispered something to Lance and he blushed furiously, his expression akin to being shocked with a cattle prod. He started ranting furiously at her waving his arms like an octopus and Hunk covered his smile with his hand, his whole body shaking with amusement. As they came within earshot, Veronica simply pointed to Keith and Pidge. Lance snapped his mouth shut and they boarded the train.

Keith still felt nervous about still having friends, he’d never done this before and was unsure of whether he would keep them. Pidge found them a compartment near the rear end of the train so that they wouldn’t be disturbed. The entire train journey mostly consisted of playing games with Ladyblue and Kosmo, who seemed to be really good friends for some reason.

They came up with a game where Kosmo would teleport to different compartments on the train holding pieces of parchment with different messages on in his mouth. Pidge and Keith used a charm, which would record 30 seconds of sound, and they placed it on Kosmo as he travelled back and forth. Mainly the parchments said, ‘I is demon cat respect me and I spare you,’ or ‘I am godcat!’ or sometimes even ‘I’s loves you alls.’

The conversations and screams of confusion recorded by the charm left everyone rolling around in laughter, until a certain princess came along silently, scaring the life out of them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she practically shouted. “Just having fun Lura, what’s up?” asked Pidge trying to keep the giggles out of her voice.

“What’s up is that I was hanging out with my other friends and there teleports Kosmo holding a sign saying ‘I am devil cat and you will die soon.’” Keith sniggered; he hoped her compartment would get that one.

“Oh come princesa, it’s all in good fun, sit with us for a round,” Lance said invitingly. She rolled her eyes and sat down next to Hunk.

“Ok, new message. Allura, any ideas?” asked Hunk. She thought for a moment.

“The compartment after me has five Slytherins in who I happen to greatly dislike. How about, ‘My masters will come soon, and you will bez deads?” They looked to one another. “Love it,” Lance said and scribbled the message on a new piece of parchment. He gave it to Kosmo, and Keith charmed him. He disappeared in a flash of blue light. Exactly 30 seconds later, he came back and Pidge reversed the charm so they could hear what happened.

“Fucking merlin’s beard what the hell is that?” screeched a very familiar Slytherin. Another laughed.

“Calm down you drama queen, it’s a teleporting kitty. Hello teleporting kitty,” another said, who may have had a very distinctive ponytail.

“What do you have there?” asked a very, very posh voice, “’My masters will come soon, and you will be’s deads.’ Quite amusing.”

“I’m gonna-“ the girl didn’t finish then the recording stopped. Everyone, including Allura, burst out laughing.

“Oh my god! We got Lotor and his generals,” said Hunk through tears. “Hell yeah! Lotor and his lesbians!” That made Allura laugh even harder.

“W-where did you, come up with, that idea?” Allura asked as she shook with silent glee.

“My sister’s got like the biggest crush on one but she won’t tell me which one. And it’s so obvious Ezor and Zethrid like each other or are dating.”

“Good point.” She stayed with them for the rest of the train journey and when one of her friends came to see where she gone off to, she simply waved her off.

When the train finally stopped in Hogsmeade station, they all got off together. Kosmo seemed to really want to stay with Ladyblue and Keith and Lance had to pull them apart to put the cats in their carriers. They joined the giant crowd that had stumbled off the train and made their way to the carriages, all smushed together so that Lance and Keith were shoulder to shoulder, almost holding hands. Since they were last off the train, they were last to get a carriage.

Keith smiled up at the thestrals, not caring about the strange looks he was probably getting. “Hey guys,” he said softly stroking them. “You can see them,” Allura said dumbfounded, “What do they look like?”

“Imagine a black sort of scaled horse with hide flaps and pure white eyes.” He got into the seat closest to the thestrals and kept stroking them the whole way. He really, really liked them. As they trudged up the gravel path and entered the castle, he suddenly remembered how he wouldn’t be able to sit next to the others. Ugh, Lance. Lance must have realised this too as he started glaring at him.

They were some of the last ones in the great hall and they sat at their respective tables. Hunk went to the Hufflepuff table and sat near the girl with big gold hoops and Allura’s cousin. Allura sat near her other friends and next to Pidge. Keith sat at the end of the table (or as close as he could get) not willing to make eye contact with anyone.

Not to his surprise, no one sat directly next to him or very near him. Then Lance sighed behind him and sat only a seat away, a little surprising. He said nothing to him and wouldn’t look in Keith’s direction. Keith was mostly fine with this but wondered why, if Lance didn’t want to talk, would he sit next to him. It’s a little infuriating to know that someone who you are acquainted with and have talked to before is refusing to even acknowledge your presence. Even if that person thinks that you are antisocial, rude and abrasive. Not to mention he wasn’t near his Gryffindor friends, who, now he thought about it, there were two spare seats next to them and Lance decided to sit next to him.

Eventually, the curiosity got the better of him, he tugged on Lance’s jacket sleeve and he turned with a puzzled look on his face. It didn’t even seem to have a grain of malice in. Keith cocked his head.

“What?”

“Why are you sitting next to me?”

“Huh? Oh right,” his expression was still sort of soft, but it hardened ”There was nowhere else to sit.”

“There was, next to those boys, aren’t they your friends?”

“Who? James and Ryan? God, I’d be such a third wheel. No. Look, I don’t want to sit next to you ok! I can move,”

“Stay,” it came as a whisper from Keith, a silent plea that he instantly regretted. He didn’t even know where it came from. He just knew he didn’t want another person to leave him. Lance stopped halfway out of his seat. “What?” he asked tentatively, his voice low.

“Nothing!”

“Are you kidding me? Look there are no other seats. We don’t like each other all that much. I’m your rival for God’s sake! I’m fraternising with the enemy!” That hurt, for some reason that struck a chord deep in Keith’s heart.

“We don’t have to talk, but now I want to know what you said because it will drive me crazy and eat away at me all night. If you told me to go, that’s fine. I want to! I’ll get Ryan to make a space for me. So what did you say?”

“I said stay, alright. I don’t know why I would say that though because you clearly hate me so go!”

Lance sat back down scowling, looks like he was sticking around. Keith furrowed his brow and gave Lance his best ‘I will devour your soul’ look but Lance glared right back. He couldn’t maintain the look for much longer so he shook his head so that his hair fell in front of his eyes and looked down at his plate. There was a strange fuzzy feeling taking up residence in his heart.

The trays of food and plates disappeared, and the prefects were called to take everyone back to the dorms. Allura was going on about being a prefect and no one was surprised. Keith thought if anything it was going to worsen the rivalry between her and Lotor.

He walked out the great hall to see Shiro waiting by the staircase. He wasn’t sure how he got there so fast but that didn’t matter, he hadn’t seen him in months. He ran over to the man and hugged him as hard as he could. Maybe they got some stares, but whatever, he was his brother. “I missed you,” Keith mumbled into him. “I kinda like you not weirded out by contact.” Keith felt that he was smiling.

“It’s a thing now because I lost you once, and I’m not doing that again.”

“How’s Adam?” Shiro asked shakily.

“He’s good. Holding up the best he can. I had to lie to him, every day, directly to his face.”

“That hurts. I’m so sorry. You need to get to the common room now. I’ll see you in class.” He waved and walked up a different staircase. Keith went up the one leading to Gryffindor tower.

He leapt straight into his bed and Kosmo teleported into his arms. He spent the night reading about various things from a few books on galra history, cryptids and some muggle novels, they were rather good, except for the one love story Adam had shoved into his trunk at the last moment. It was so unrealistic! The story followed two elves that were rivals in every way who slowly developed a friendship that lead to something more. AS IF.

At about 11ish, his notebook vibrated, indicating someone was writing. Took it off his bedside table and flicked to the new whole group conversation, Pidge wiped all their books in honour of the new year. “Since this year is my 5th, I have OWLs which means we’re going to have to meet for less time as I’m going to need more for studying, k?” asked the shiny bright pink writing. Of course, Allura would be worried about her studies at 11 o’clock at night.

“All good,” dark green writing spelled out.

“Good w wateva, tryina sleep!” dark yellow ink responded quickly. He must have been really tired; Keith couldn’t understand how someone could go to sleep that early.

“You should all be trying to sleep. And yes Allura sounds good,” Shiro’s black ink replied very formally.

“Anything for you my princess.” Keith looked over and saw Lance smiling at the notebook as if it was the cleverest thing he’d done. “I’m not yours,” she responded quickly. He smiled wider, why? She just turned him down.

“Maybe I’ll be yours someday.”

“Nope.”

“Sure fine. So, meet after lunch or during?” His ink turned a deep yet bright red on the page, his favourite shade.

“During.” He closed his notebook and decided to go to bed earlier than normal.

He snuck a glance at Lance for reasons he couldn’t seem to think of and found the boy looking back at him. He looked confused. As soon as he realised Keith was looking back at him, he flopped backwards so Keith couldn’t see him anymore. Maybe he was wondering why he was going to bed so early, but how would he know that he always stayed up late.

* * *

The next morning was like the year before, sitting essentially alone at Gryffindor table. Keith was hoping for double defence against the dark arts and he got it. His other lessons for the day were care of magical creatures, cool, divination, ugh, and arithmetic, he liked maths.

When breakfast was over, Pidge and Hunk, and Lance instantly joined him. They chatted about being excited that Haxus was finally gone. Keith was also extremely excited about this fact but didn’t really feel like talking. When they got to class, Shiro was there smiling at all of them. Keith wanted to sit as close to Shiro as possible so he could make sure he wouldn’t go away again. Pidge took the seat next to him and Lance and Hunk sat near them.

“Great to see you again, so, what was the other teacher like?” Shiro asked excitedly. Keith and Lance raised their hands at the same time and proceeded to glare at each other. He asked Keith. “He never let us practice what he taught and only taught first year spells over and over again.”

“And he got us in trouble if we ever tried to argue,” Lance said quickly. Keith rolled his eyes.

“So what did he teach you?”

“Nothing, well, nothing new,” Keith and Lance said at the same time then proceeded to glare at each other.

The rest of the lesson consisted of learning the basics of what they were supposed to learn for the rest of the term and Lance and Keith yelling answers over each other, which severely annoyed the rest of the class. Keith didn’t want to talk to Lance as he was getting seriously on his nerves. He wasn’t entirely sure what he did to rile up Lance in the first place but whatever, it was really, really annoying.

The same thing happened in care of magical creatures. Keith was impressed, Coran kept his cool the entire lesson even though he and Lance kept arguing about why thunderbirds were endangered.

Thankfully, divination was so boring and simple, yet so stupidly convoluted Keith didn’t care about answering any questions, especially since Ms. bug-eyes kept making predictions about how he and the rest of his friends would die.

Finally, lunch arrived. They all quickly grabbed their food and headed to the room of requirement. Thankfully, it was empty and Shiro was only a few minutes late. “Sorry, sorry, I was caught up chatting with Coran on break.” They each found their rests and Allura got a big piece of parchment and a quill.

“I’m going to need an extra half an hour on weekdays for studies which leaves us for 3.45pm-6.15pm, all good so far?” she asked looking up from her writing. Keith and the others nodded. “Perfect. And I think 2 hours taken off on weekends. So 10am-1pm and 2-4pm. Unless naturally we have quidditch practice or the days when we go to Hogsmeade.”

“Awesome. So, is that all?” asked Pidge.

“Yes. This is our timetable, which I’ll put on the wall and a new map as the old one isn't very large. I think we can connect them with red yarn.”

“Cool, so should we start looking for leads?” Keith asked rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“Why is it always go, go, go. Do we never get any breaks?” Lance asked not looking at anyone in particular, but Keith knew the question was directed at him. So what? They needed these leads.

“We’ve had all summer as a break, now we can get started again.”

“But it’s the first day of school?” he moaned.

“Which means we should get started,” his tone got gradually more aggressive.

“Can you two shut up?” Pidge shouted and everyone turned to her, “I get it, you guys ‘hate’ each other or something stupid but we are a team. Together we’re going to take down the galra, get my family back and free everyone from them. We can’t have inside arguments that will distract from the work. Bicker all you want outside of this room but inside, we’re the paladins and knights of Voltron so stop bitching and let’s focus.” They all stared at her stunned.

“That’s not an invitation for staring, read.” She snapped her fingers and they got books off the shelves and began taking in and noting down all the information while scarfing down an Indian curry, a new addition to the school menu in order to make it more diverse and offer a different range of foods.

* * *

The next month was essentially the same as the first day of school. In lessons, whenever either Keith or Lance would be asked a question, the other would interrupt or answer and improve the previous. Keith only did this to annoy Lance, and Lance did it to one up him and prove they were rivals. By the beginning of October, the entire 3rd year knew about how annoying Keith and Lance were. People actually called them rivals, by that point Keith did have to admit it to Lance’s face.

“Fine. Just because you seem to have the need to prove yourself constantly, we’re rivals. Does that help your self-esteem?” Lance tried not to smile as the comment was an insult, but he had admitted it, finally. “Yeah, you admit I’m just as good as you.”

“If it will shut you up,” he said playfully. After that, Keith made it his own mission to beat Lance, which he did, a lot. But sometimes Lance did do better. Pidge felt like tearing her own hair out occasionally and Hunk tried not to shout at them, a lot. His self-control was to be admired.

* * *

Since all the previous chasers were now graduated, they needed new ones. Funnily enough they were also third years; James, Ryan and Nadia. They were all quite close and supported James’s personal vendetta against the seeker, though he could never really get an insult in edgewise.

During most practices, Keith and Lance would chase each other whether literally or figuratively. Veronica would shout at them and the chasers weren’t really sure if they should get involved or not. Nadia hummed to herself one day when they were practicing speed and sharp turns. “I wish they would stop being stupid and get the feelings over with.”

“What are you talking about?” asked James. “Keith and Lance. It’s so obvious they’re in to each other but just won’t stop arguing for some reason.”

“I think it’s because they don’t actually know,” Ryan said quietly.

“Oh that would make sense, I mean, look at them.” She pointed to the seeker and beater who were currently racing each other. Veronica looked stressed as usual, but Nadia could see her smile. The oblivious boys were shouting at each other as they raced. Nyma flew over to the captain and whispered something in her ear. She nodded sadly but then laughed.

“Oh, I get it now. Still, why does everyone look at them and go ‘ship’?” asked James.

“Cause they would make a great couple. Ship is short for relationship,” Nadia explained to her clueless friend. They were similar to Keith and Lance in the way of being dumbasses over feelings. 

The two oblivious lovebirds stopped racing and started circling each other like two predators.

* * *

Veronica had internally shipped them since Lance made the team the year before, but now, she just wanted them to shut up. During quidditch practice, she would yell up to the point that she lost her voice. After their third practice of the season, she wanted to lock them in a room and not let them out until they promised to never open their mouths again.

“Lance, Lancito, my brother, hermanito. Would you kindly shut your face during practice, for one fucking minute! You and Keith are going to be the death of me! I swear I’m going to get grey hairs from all this stress!” she shouted across the pitch at the boys who happened to be circling each other and ignoring her words.

They looked at her ashamed and when practice was over, they made a pact to not speak to each other during practice as to not rile the other up.

* * *

After the first week of October, it was the first time they would be allowed to go to Hogsmeade. They went in a group and stopped at many, many shops. Allura and Lance overloaded on sweets, Hunk wanted to try every non-alcoholic drink from the three broomsticks and Pidge and Keith didn’t really spend any money.

They actually had a good day for once as Keith and Lance kept the arguing to a minimum. They tried their best to stay quiet for once and let the others have a relaxing day.

Throughout October they kept hitting dead ends in the research and went to study instead. Pidge and Hunk were fine with the arrangement as it meant Lance and Keith were quiet for once, both trying to study harder than the other. Unless it was a game which meant a lot of rivalry during it and occasionally flipped boards, but it was fun to watch them play wizards chess. Pidge actually got popcorn sometimes as the chess matches became very intense very fast.

The first half of their third year was mostly just Keith and Lance arguing like there was no tomorrow. It was also when almost everyone in the 3rd year and a few from years above started thinking to themselves, “Hm, OTP? Yeah, if they would stop being stupid.” Anyone who witnessed their arguing, noticed the small smiles of triumph, the way their arguments got so intense because of how well they knew each other and how they would always say sorry together when someone told them off.

The teachers decided they didn’t like the arguing, but thought they would do better if they sat next to each other.


	2. The Galra Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diving deeper into the depths of the dark history of the Galra will be more than finding leads for Matt and Sam Holt, it will reveal truths and secrets about the past of someone who never understood where he came from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloo my readers. I hope you're enjoying the story so far and I hope you're ready to feel a lil bit sad.

Allura kept taking time off and cancelling Voltron meetings. She said she needed all the time she could get if she was going to get straight Os. Keith was a little annoyed that she was allowed to do this even though Voltron was the number one priority, but OWLs did help decide what you do when you get older, so he could see the importance.

As the Christmas holidays grew closer, they met for less and less time until it was for only an hour after school. It was almost the first exam week for the 5th and 7th years, when they would do the more academic subjects. Allura was the most stressed Keith had ever seen her. She stopped doing the research all together and studied in the meetings. She didn’t show up at all during the exam week. Finally, Friday came to an end and the exam week was over. Allura declared that they would have a full day of research on Saturday. Finally!

Three hours after a very good breakfast, they made no headway whatsoever. Pidge was sitting upside-down with her head at an almost dangerous angle, she said it was to see if she could read faster with all the blood rushing to her head. Lance was draped across Hunk’s armchair on top of Hunk, he always liked to lie on him, Keith never really understood why. Keith was sitting in his favourite bookshelf perch, and everyone gave him strange looks when he managed to swing up quickly. Shiro was lying on his old bed, his expression was one of interest, he must have been keeping all his frustration bottled up. Allura was lying on her back, holding the book she was reading above her face, knuckles bone white from gripping so hard in anguish and anticipation. They were all annoyed that they hadn’t managed to find any new information in the past three weeks.

Pidge shrieked and fell forwards, thankfully she didn’t hurt herself. “Ow fuck!” she hissed. “Language,” Shiro called from across the room.

“You can’t tell me what to do! You’re not a teacher! Oh, fuck you are.” Shiro rolled his eyes and Lance and Hunk sniggered.

“So did the blood rush help or just make you look like someone proposed to you?” asked Lance trying to keep the giggles out of his voice. Keith sniggered and Pidge threw her book at Lance’s head, he sat up in time to not get hit by the heavy projectile. Keith pouted; it would have been very funny to see that smug smile wiped of his face. “What? You want to see me injured?” Keith smiled playfully and Lance’s eyes widened a little.

“I think it would have been funny.” Pidge spat a short bark of laughter, Allura giggled.

“Oh, shut your quiznack!” Lance hurled his book at Keith. It opened as it gained height and he slammed it shut, catching it just before it hit his face. He moved the book with both hands still on it and smirked with as much force as he could. Everyone besides Lance clapped politely and he looked away. It may have just been a trick of the light, but Keith could have sworn Lance’s cheeks darkened.

“What’s a quiznack?” asked Pidge.

“It’s an old word invented by Nicholas Flammel-Altea; it means fuck,” Lance said with a very big smile. “Language.”

“The baby is allowed to swear if he wants to,” Pidge said with a smile.

“I’m not the baby!”

“You’re the youngest and ergo, baby,” Hunk said and ruffled Lance’s hair. Lance pushed his hand away and crossed his arms like a petulant child.

“Let’s keep going, come on, back to work everyone.” said Allura lying back down this time on her front. She got up quickly and paced three times. A new chair appeared, and she sat in it one leg over the other with incredible posture, spine like an iron rod.

“You don’t have to sit like a princess when we do hours of reading,” Lance remarked.

“I’m simply comfortable with the posture of a high-class witch while you seem comfortable with the posture of a green bean.”

“Did you just call me a green bean?” asked Lance outraged.

“Yes I did.” Everyone howled with laughter and Lance got off Hunk. Keith almost lost his balance, steadying himself before he could topple off of his precarious perch.

He went back to his book. After a few minutes he leapt down from his perch in front of the bookcase and paced three times. ‘I need a book which will tell me what the galra is. I need a book that will tell me what the galra is. I need a book which will tell me what the galra is.’ He looked back to the bookcase; there was a new book. It was bound in purple leather and the pages looked worn and dog-eared. He took it off the bookshelf and looked at the cover. It read, ‘The truth about Lord Zarkon Galra and the galra curse.’ The author was a person with a single name, Marmora.

“I found it!” he yelled startling everyone. “You found what?” asked Allura calmly.

“’The truth about Lord Zarkon Galra and the galra curse, by Marmora.’”

“The galra curse? That makes sense!” Everyone looked to Allura. “Everyone we sent to infiltrate the Galra said the galra is a curse, they meant it literally! Keith read it, skip anything unimportant and if your voice starts to hurt, we’ll pass it around.” Everyone got comfortable and waited for Keith to begin. He opened it and to his surprise, it was handwritten.

“It’s a diary, this Marmora must have escaped the galra and wrote about what they were really like. ‘Whoever is reading this, you must be a powerful wizard.’”

“Really?” interrupted Lance. he rolled his eyes and kept reading.

“’I charmed this book so that only a person who had a chance to undo the curse could find it. My name is Marmora. My partner and I escaped the galra before we were about to ascend ranks, when we realised what the galra truly was, and why it has to be lifted. From what I know, the galra is a curse so ancient, it was unnamed, until Zarkon found it. He used it to his advantage and named it after himself. The curse is an abuse of power; it allows anyone baring the cursed mark to live until they are killed and to command people without unforgivable curses. The mark of the curse is a red symbol on the arm given by one of high rank, you must be willing to kill to become one. The mark turns the wizard’s skin purplish, yellows their sclera and sharpens their teeth and nails.

“’Zarkon turned himself galra, then his wife, and then his closest allies. A more recent revelation found that the curse is genetic, if a galra has children, they will also bear the discolouration and more powerful build. I come from a second generation of galra, my parents were both by choice, and they were killed by aurors. This enraged my young self and I thought I should fight in the name of vrepit sa, as I grew older, I realised how wrong I was. Once my partner and I were told the truth about the galra, we refused to earn our scars and escaped. Our only hope at survival is to find something which can rival the curse, a spell or some kind of element.’” Keith stopped reading and looked up, everyone was gaping at him.

“This is incredible! Inside knowledge on the inner workings of the galra! I’ve got all the important details down, the galra curse is an abuse of power and goes against the laws of nature, ranks are given by brutality, one can be galra by being branded by the mark with the will to kill or one’s parents were. Is there anymore Keith?” asked Allura taking notes.

“Yeah, they’re organised into different entries, without dates for some reason. New entry, ‘we’ve been on the run for years and sadly earned scars. There is good news, we’ve managed to find a spell that rivals the curse. We discovered an element called luxite.’”

“Luxite? I’ve memorised the periodic table of magical and non-magical elements, which consists of 218, and there isn’t a rare earth metal called luxite,” Pidge said matter of factly.

“Marmora says he just discovered it,” said Hunk cutting off Pidge. “Marmora doesn’t mention their gender Hunk,” said Lance examining his nails.

“No?” Keith read it back.

“No.”

“Oh, continue.”

“’We experimented with it and put it into the rare earth metals in the periodic table.’”

“Called it.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“After a week we had no luck, then my partner found an old legend in a book from an old muggle library. It was all hallows eve at the time so none of them gave us strange looks. The legend stated that when blacksmiths from centuries ago, created daggers out of strange metals, they had the ability to make certain animals look human. We had no hope so decided to give this convoluted muggle practice a try.

We turned the metal into a dagger and held it together. As soon as my hand came in hear contact with the newly made weapon, my skin turned from a dark purple to a deep ebony, my hair from an almost black violet to a curly dark brown. My partner’s skin turned from a violet blue to a pale shade, his hair turned from navy to chocolate and his eyes from a glowing base yellow to a dark green, he had almond shaped eyes and irises the whole time! And so did I! When we took our hands off the dagger, our skin reverted back to the purple galra discolouration. It had worked but needed a way to stay permanent. At once I thought about the incantation to turn a wizard to galra.’”

“Wait,” Keith looked up at Allura who was furiously scribbling, “The book contains the incantation, to turn someone galra?” Keith looked over the page. “Yes, so can I read without being interrupted?” They all nodded simultaneously, and Keith dropped his gaze back to the book.

“’A galra must hold their wand to a normal wizard’s arm and speak the incantation, it will only work if spoken in Latin and if the wizard is fine with using killing magic. Veneficus de monstro, monstrum eris. Amet monstro, supremo aeternum.’” Keith felt his blood run cold as he read the words that would mutate the essence of a pure soul.

“What does that mean?” asked Lance. Keith looked up once again and realised that Shiro and Allura had also paled. “Why do you guys look so scared? Wait, you can read Latin?”

“Yeah, it means-“

“From wizard to monster, a monster you’ll be. Monster forever with magic supreme. It’s translated from English, which is why the Latin doesn’t rhyme, I never thought the galra called themselves monsters,” Allura said quietly.

“There’s more, and good news does come with this. ‘First we tried saying the incantation translated backwards with our wands pointed at the dagger. Usque ad summum amet monstro. Et erit in monstrum, monstrum ex divanations. That didn’t work. We thought again. After much time puzzling over this potentially life threatening conundrum, I had an idea, I told my partner that I wished to do it alone. I thought of the incantation, and instead of saying it backwards, I thought of the reverse. Inde est draco maleficus, nec divinos eris. Semper cum summa maleficus venenatis purus.’ Not from Marmora’s narrative, that’s the good part. Their incantation means from monster to wizard, a wizard you’ll be. Wizard forever again with pure magic supreme.

“‘After I used my incantation, the hilt began to glow purple with a half of the galra mark. My skin turned back to the ebony from before. I picked up the dagger and looked it over and wondered whether the change was permanent. My body went back to my galra form. The spell works back and forth, charm a luxite dagger and it will change your form, it works without the charm, but the dagger must be on the galra at all times.’ There’s a-“ Keith stopped and looked at the next page in horror. It was a drawing of a dagger with a glowing purple hilt, identical to the one strapped to his hip, minus the glowing symbol.

“There’s a what?” asked Pidge curiously. He tried to keep his face impassive so they wouldn’t see his inner turmoil of emotion. The storm of fear swirling inside him, fuelled by a whirlwind of questions burning with the heat of need. Desire for an answer.

“Another entry, the third. ’We found a way to harvest the metal easily and made many daggers. We discovered many galra who had run away from their families as we travelled. We gave them the daggers, allowing them to pass as normal wizards. Some joined us and we formed a sort of intelligence to try and work to destroy the galra from our small numbers. We have hope.’ Fourth entry. ‘My daughter was born; I hope to make this world a safer place for her and everyone in this small world. My partner and I will be infiltrating galra ranks to hopefully find a way to fully undo the curse. I’m leaving her with my second in commands, I will come back from the mission and see her again.’

"Wait, there’s new handwriting. ‘I finally know what happened to my mother and father, it angers me to my very core. To think, that I could find allegiance to those who share my scars! Never! I will keep my mother’s memory alive by delivering the luxite daggers to children of the galra, one day they might come back to us and help find a way to undo the galra curse. This was my mother’s journal, she died on that mission. Marmora’s legacy will be honoured with all who bare the Marmora blades.’” He stopped reading, everyone was silent.

“Wow, what a story. So Marmora was a she. Now we finally know about the galra, that’s good. Allura, let’s get those notes on the board,” Lance said optimistically and got the notes from Allura and stuck them to the board. Everything felt so big all of a sudden, a woman escaped the galra and after managing to save a lot of doomed wizards, she died trying to do what was right.

“Soo, this meeting was a lot to take in, how about we call it a day and, y’know, let the big thoughts mull over.”

“Yep,” Keith said quickly and pretended to put the book back on the shelf, but instead slipped it into his bag.

He rushed out and went to the nearest boys’ bathroom. He locked himself in a stall and tried to calm his breathing. It wasn’t possible, no, no way. He couldn’t be galra! He couldn’t! Keith didn’t know what his parents looked like but knew people would tell him if they were galra. Then he remembered what he asked McGonagall in his first year. _Were they bad people? Were they galra?_ She had flinched. She said his mother had a dark past, she was a bad girl and his father was supposedly a golden boy.

It made sense, but It couldn’t be true. He got out the book and looked at the drawing again, it was the same, identical to his knife. He reached inside his robes and got out the dagger. He almost dropped it as he unravelled the strip of cloth, which covered the funny looking symbol. His didn’t glow, but it was still exactly the same design. He looked back and forth, back and forth his eyes flitted from the dagger and the drawing of the first of its kind.

“Kosmo,” he whispered. There was a flash of blue light and his cat sat at his feet looking at him confused. He closed the book, lifted his cat carefully onto his lap and stroked the cosmic blue fur. 

“Do you think I’m a monster?” Kosmo shook his head and looked up at Keith with his beautiful blue and black eyes. If Kosmo could look concerned and confused, it was how he was looking at his owner. He put the cat onto the floor of the stall again.

“Open your mouth.” Kosmo did so and Keith put the hilt of the dagger in his mouth. He closed his eyes and took his hands away from the hilt. He heard the knife clatter to the floor and hissing. He looked down at his cat and realised he was hissing at him, then his eyes drifted to his fingers.

“No, no, no, no, no. It’s not possible, it’s not!” The skin beneath his gloves turned a pinkish violet, his nails had sharpened into claws. Kosmo looked confused again.

Keith shakily pulled up the sleeve of his left arm and looked away. He finally brought himself to look. There, in an angry bright red, was the galra mark. The mark left above his house when his parents were killed, when Shiro was going to be killed, and he bore it. He bore the mark of monstrous serial killers, Zarkon. He ran his hands through his hair and breathed out a sigh that turned into a scream of inner pain. He tugged on his hair and screamed again. Hot tears ran down his cheeks.

“No!” he screamed and banged his hand against the tiled wall. It didn’t hurt at all, and dented the tiles. A spider web of cracks. “No,” he cried shakily over and over again willing the flow of tears to stop. He took the dagger off the ground and sheathed it.

Kosmo meowed in confusion as his skin and hair reverted back to its original colour and, type? He finally got the tears to stop flowing and went out with Kosmo at his heals. He splashed water on his face and got his breathing under control. The door of the bathroom opened; he froze.

“Keith? You good?” Fuck, Lance. Obviously not _fuck_ Lance, both of them are underage and it’s not like he likes the guy, they’re rivals, right? He would take Keith’s vulnerability as blackmail or something. Footsteps started approaching.

“Bed,” he whispered. Kosmo ran over and leapt into Keith’s arms and they disappeared his trademark flash of blue light just as the footsteps rounded the corner.

They landed on Keith’s bed in a heap with the curtains closed, he always had them closed, no matter what. There weren’t any noises of confusion, which probably meant no one was in the dorms. It started snowing early and the common room was always warmer despite the hearth in the middle of the room. He opened his curtains to let in some light. Kosmo looked at Keith still incredibly confused. He got out his dagger and showed it to Kosmo again. He sniffed it and looked a little excited for a moment. “Do I look like a monster?” Kosmo shook his head. Keith placed the dagger next to him, was it him or did he gain some height. Kosmo bared his teeth. “Am I a monster now boy?” Kosmo stopped baring his teeth.

Keith touched the dagger, then took his hand away. Again, and again. “Am I a monster?” he asked in a frenzied exasperated tone. “Am I a monster Kosmo! Does this mean I’m a monster? Because I… I, I’m galra.” He finally said it, it felt like acceptance, but he didn’t want to accept it.

“I’m galra. I’m galra, I’m galra, I’m galra, I’m, I’m,” he stopped for a second, “a monster.” He held the dagger on his lap and thought of an old play, and his stupid identity and existential crisis. ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’ Kosmo put his paw on Keith’s hand and shook his head as if he could hear Keith’s thoughts. Macbeth was considering homicide to become a king, Keith wanted nothing like that.

“I’m galra.” Kosmo nodded. “And a monster?” Kosmo shook his head. He smiled at his cat and stroked his fur.

The door burst open and Lance rushed in. Keith quickly stuffed the dagger back in its sheath within his robes. “Dude are you ok?” asked Lance breathlessly. Did he run all the way from the 7th floor bathroom? Just to see if Keith was ok. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks. “Why do you care?” he asked looking away.

“I-I don’t,” he stuttered. Keith never heard him stutter before, he was always so sure of himself. So cocky and arrogant yet in a sort of self-aware way. A surprisingly attractive quality, no, no. Do not go there. You’re not thinking straight again. When do I ever? Shut up! Why, now, was he questioning himself?

“You just rushed out, like, really fast.”

“Yeah, just wanted to get…” he waved his hand about, “out.” There were two flashes of light and Lance was sitting on his bed with a very smug Kosmo in his lap. Keith rolled his eyes.

“Ok, so why did you want to get out faster than us?” A probing question. Kosmo got off Lance’s lap and sat in between them. Keith began stroking his cat, Lance did too.

“It just, felt so much bigger. Like we’ve taken away the black and white filter and now the world is so colourful it’s blinding. I hate to admit it but I kind of liked the black and white filter, no matter how loose it was before.”

“Very poetic. Didn’t know an emo like you had such big emotions!”

“Shut up.”

“I’m serious, about the first part. That was like, a really good metaphor, which I fully agree with, by the way.”

“Really? You? Mr. cocky confident flirty finger guns.” Instead of gasping dramatically like he always did, he simply smiled.

“Yeah. I keep it all inside, make sure I don’t let it out. There’s a lot of myself I don’t share with the world for the benefit of keeping everyone else together, happy, y’know. I haven’t cracked yet, which means I can keep up the pretence.” Why was he being so open? Why wasn’t he making fun of him? Quick, say something snarky.

“You sure your walls didn’t just crack a smidge.”

“Oh shit, you right.” Keith laughed a little. “So, when you change the subject easily, make a dumb comment or just break the tension, you’re hiding the smart, calculating, strategic and well worded side of yourself.”

“Did you just say I’m smart and well worded?” he asked excitedly.

“Jeeze, learn to take a compliment.”

“This is new! I got four from Mr. closed off emo who happens to be a really strong, intelligent person with obvious barriers which can be broken down with enough force.”

Keith smiled at the insults and compliments. Lance leaned back and placed the other palm on the bed, a soft expression on his face, a small grin pulling at his lips. Their hands lightly brushed against each other on the soft fur of the grey cat and they pulled away at the same time. Keith felt the slight warmth which was coming to his cheeks a lot more often now for some reason. He glanced to the boy across from him and saw his own expression mirrored. Blue eyes glittered with a foreign emotion. Keith took his cat and held him against his chest, even with his weak protests, and half hid his face in the fur.

“G-good talk man,” Lance got up from Keith’s bed and went to his own. He got out his notebook and Keith flinched, what the hell. Lance’s eyes widened for a moment, then he put the notebook away and got out a wizard novel. Keith wondered what had just passed through Lance’s mind.

* * *

The next day they were back at each other’s throats, though the others thought nothing of it. Only the two boys knew of their third bonding moment. And the violets revisited Lance’s dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and comments are welcomed.


	3. Well Damn The Plot Thickens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If anyone thought the Galra couldn't get more interesting, they were wrong. More information on the hidden organisation yet to come with a gay disaster and a blushing bi on the side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Hoping the last chapter was impactful and funny and fluffy, cause that's what I was going for. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Allura always prided herself on her energy. No matter what, she was always energetic and ready for the day. Stress, headaches and sleep deprivation had nothing on her, until her 5th year came along. She was always good at studying and getting the highest marks in her year, but that was before all the heavy coursework came. She lived for her books, making notes, and writing essays last minute. What certainly didn’t help, was all the time she had to put into Voltron.

Her whole life, she had wanted to stand against the galra and now she could, but her exams were getting in the way. Allura didn’t have time for anything anymore, so she temporarily took out one of the most important pieces of her life. There was a reason she disappeared for an hour or two every day without fail, and only one person knew why.

The week before exam week, she stopped disappearing and instead spent all the time she could studying alone in the room of requirement. And in the halls, her partner didn’t wear the expression of regularity, rather, one of confusion and maybe sadness. She did feel bad for not telling her partner why she didn’t show up, but she just didn’t have time.

On Monday, she decided that she couldn’t show up to Voltron at all, she still hadn’t found a break in her schedule. Before she had the chance to step into the great hall, someone grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her into the now empty hallway. She knew who it was before the student turned her around.

“Allura, are you, avoiding me?” the boy asked shyly. She had know her partner for her entire time at Hogwarts, though she wouldn’t admit to even him that he was the person she cared most about in the school, aside from her uncle obviously. She felt ashamed for doing what she did, but like she told herself, she didn’t have time. “I’m sorry, but yes, I have.”

“Why? Have I done something wrong? Have your feelings left?” He sounded so sad and sincere.

“No, no, no. Nothing like that! Do not be so quick to jump to conclusions. The exams were looming terrifyingly over and I thought I didn’t have time. I know it’s not a good enough excuse but it’s the truth.”

“But we study together, I could have helped. We do share the same fear of not doing well enough.”

“Now that I think about it, I was a little silly to ignore you.” They laughed quietly together. She softly caressed his cheek and he leaned into the touch. “My feelings will stay true, remember that,” she said softly.

“It would be hard to forget, and mine are as true as you say yours are.”

Their foreheads touched, they did not take a chance doing anything else, as it was a public hall. They walked into the exam with mirrored expressions of hatred, which fooled the entire school as they always did. As she took hold of her quill, Allura wondered not for the first time, how people would react if she told them about her partner.

* * *

A few months later, they were in deeper than Allura had ever dreamed. The auror office was never good at hiding details about missions and other such ministry activities but she now held more information on the galra than any ministry official did. She felt wild with the progress of progress.

Pidge remarked that there couldn’t possibly be any more information they needed, so they stopped reading books and instead looked over maps of England and other countries that the galra seemed interested in. The maps contained many known locations where the galra had been, but they were still unsure as to how to connect the dots.

Hunk would make different patches out of materials he found, to represent how long the galra had been away for. Lance would stare at the parchment strewn on the floor, then run around, being energetic or something, and the cycle would repeat. Pidge wrote furiously in notebooks, simply trying to make sense of the chaos and then staring at the pages of bullet points, constantly muttering under her breath trying to find some kind of pattern. Shiro was the only one who thought there was anything more to be discovered in the books.

Allura herself kept pinning up the red yarn trying to connect galran activity but failing. Keith frequently annoyed her. He would stare at the maps then rearrange the red yarn she had spent time putting up. They would sometimes launch into arguments about the placements. Most instances, Keith was right and when he was wrong, he would simply apologise and put the yarn back. She hated how he could be the bigger person so easily, especially when he couldn’t seem to when it involved Lance. When it involved Lance, one always had to be better than the other.

She did think they could be a good couple, if not good friends, if they could bring themselves to stop fighting for more than two seconds.

* * *

Allura groaned, she swore all the stress and studying was getting to her. It was thankfully close to the easter holidays, which meant once again, the castle, would be almost completely empty. “Ya good love?” asked Veronica in her atrocious cockney accent. Allura hugged her sides, she laughed so hard, it felt painful. “Hey, I’m not that bad.”

“Yes you are, even my cockney accent is are better than that. Let me show you, ‘ow ya findin’ tha’ arifmetic, it bare hard, righ’.” Veronica burst out laughing, Allura smiled.

“Ok fine, that was better. My dad has an American accent and my mom has a Spanish, what do you expect. But I can do a full American accent if you want.”

“We should probably keep studying.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Can I ask you something?”

“Another question?” Veronica rolled her eyes. “How come you spend barely anytime with me and the others in our year. It seems like you’re always hanging out with my hermanito and his friends.” She knew enough Spanish to know what hermanito meant, and how Veronica always talked about Lance like that.

“We’re doing this, project. I can’t really tell you what it’s about but it’s important. They’re my other friends, Lance, Keith, Pidge, Hunk and Shiro. Oh and Coran sometimes.”

“Shiro as in Shirogane?”

“Yes, he works with us. The project is doing better than before, we made real headway a few months ago. Everything’s doing well, aside from Keith and Lance.”

“What do you mean?” she asked with a sly smile. Allura gave her a look, she sniggered. “They annoy the shit out of me Ronnie, what am I supposed to do?”

“I could get a better idea if you told me what this secret project is.” Allura narrowed her eyes, Veronica put her hands up in defence from the cold stare. “Alright, more secrets, whatever. Anyway, what’s annoying about them?”

“Do I really need to say anything further?” Veronica shrugged. “Guess not, hey!” she shouted loud enough for the entire Ravenclaw common room to hear. Everyone looked at her. “Who in here thinks that Lance and Keith from 3rd year should date, you know, my little brother and Kogane.”

“Yes,” almost the entire room chanted back, aside from a few first and second years who obviously weren’t updated on school drama.

“Does that answer your question?”

“I already knew that, everyone does. I want to know what to do to make them shut up. I swear, one will make a comment and they’ll rant at each other for half an hour straight at least. Pidge has started carrying popcorn around, she calls it her _IRL movie bonanza snacks_.”

“Seems like her, she’s the short brunette right? Yeah, honestly, I’m not sure. I think they would be good for each other but comments like ‘oh you should date,’ would ruin the relationship, you know what I mean? All I have to do to get Lance to shut up at home would be to actually mention something he’s said about Keith, or vice versa.”

“Wait what? They rant to you about each other, do tell?” She crossed her legs and positioned herself to look up at her friend, even though she was taller.

“Well Lance will rant at me about a fight or something, then launch into essentially a monologue about how unfair it is that Keith is so pretty.”

“No!” she gasped dramatically.

“Yes. My favourite comments are, ‘he doesn’t even have a hairbrush! How does he have such silky hair!’ or muttered under his breath, ‘like the violets I grew in my windowsill,’ and ‘it’s not fair how he can pull off being so cool and distant then actually be a shy but awesome person.” Allura’s jaw dropped open.

“You aren’t making this up?”

“Nope. And Keith, the funny thing about him is that he never really understands when I try to embarrass him. He says things like, ‘god, he cannot take a compliment,’ and ‘why does he have to act like such an idiot when he’s actually really smart?’ one of my favourites is, ‘do his eyes actually look like the ocean, I’ve never seen it before.” Veronica beamed at her friend.

“They have it so bad for each other don’t they!” she practically shouted.

“They do. So, if you ever want them to shut up, just walk over and whisper one of the things they say under their breath in their ear. I promise it’s priceless and manages to shut them up.”

“You, my dear, are an awesome friend,” Allura wrapped her arms around Veronica. “Why, thank you kindly,” she responded in her southern accent.

***

“Whoo!” shouted Pidge pointing at her watch startling the entire room. Everyone had been doing their different tasks silently and Lance jumped in surprise; Keith sniggered. “What is it? Please, let it be relevant Pidge?” Allura asked in a strained tone. She gasped dramatically in a sort of signature Lance way.

“I am always relevant! Anyway, I timed from when Lance and Keith got to breakfast, and wait for it, they haven’t gotten into an argument for 4 whole hours!” Everyone besides the two boys started cheering, Keith crossed his arms in protest, they weren’t that insufferable, were they?

“Well I would like to say that is all me,” Lance said in a posh mocking tone while looking at his nails. If anyone was insufferable, it was him.

“Yeah, you not doing anything stupid for once and shutting up for a goddam minute!”

“Hey! I don’t always talk and when I do you should be glad that I’m gracing your ears with my enchanting vocal cords.” There was a collective groan and Hunk sunk to the floor in disappointment.

“I’m not sure if a deity exists but I will praise them for every moment you keep your mouth shut.” 

“Any god would be thankful when I start speaking.”

“Oh, because you’re so high and mighty!” Someone was suddenly directly behind him.

“Why does he have to act like such an idiot when he’s actually really smart?” Allura whispered in his ear in a distinctive American accent with a hint of Spanish. Keith’s eyes widened in shock, he remembered saying that to Veronica months ago after practice. He felt heat rise to his cheeks and he walked over to the map wall and started to look for links, moving a couple of pins around.

He could tell everyone’s eyes were on him, and Allura sniggered, walking to his side as they usually did the same thing. “That worked better than I had previously hoped. I will do that so much more often,” she said with a smirk. “Did Veronica tell you I said that? I don’t think I told anyone else.”

“Awe, so you admit it. Yes, she did, and only because I wanted a way to get you and him to stop being loud.”

“He is, and I wish he would contribute more intellectually, I know he can.”

“Oh?”

“He is smart, I think as smart as me and we’re almost as smart as Pidge. But he decides to not show that part of himself which annoys me.”

“Hm, I’ve never seen him act intellectually around me.”

“Like I said, he hides it. When barely anyone’s around, he speaks in a much more grammatically correct way, which is generally far more pleasant than his usual theatrics.” She nodded along to his every word, then dropped into the armchair near the wall and picked up a novel. “That isn’t Voltron material.”

“Yes, well I’m bored Keith. You find a way to link all the red yarn in a way to show their hidden prisons and then I’ll put my book down.” Keith rolled his eyes and looked back at the board. All the dots were linked, it was the secret homicidal and tyrannical organisation of literally the century. How do you hide a network of prisons, camps and nooks into the ministry? Through marked areas in unpopulated places, duh. “That’s it!” Keith shouted. He pulled the maps off the wall and put the main one with all the points on the floor. Everyone came over to see what he was doing. “How would you hide a network of prisons, camps and living areas for a secret organisation?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out for months,” Hunk said pedantically.

“Well yeah, but really think.” They concentrated for a moment.

“Oh shit,” Lance said, Keith could practically see the gears clicking in his mind. “Through a marked-network above-ground tunnel system which plays out through unpopulated areas such as forests and ghost towns. Just like the underground railroad.”

“Exactly.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, how did you figure that out? And what’s the underground railroad?” Pidge asked, she hated it when people were able to figure things out before her.

“The underground railroad is what the slaves, from the transatlantic slave trade of muggles, called their secret network for getting slaves and wrongly convicted people from their owners’ plantations to the freedom of north America or Canada. It’s the best way to hide a secret path network. We can mark off the areas which are known for being unpopulated, they’re our best bet.” Keith got a thick quill out and marked off all the forested and hidden areas.

“So, these different colours represent the different sightings. Most are simple sightings, but some are of the galra marks above houses. If they’ve already been seen, they would have moved and kept clear of those areas,” Shiro said taking off the different coloured pins a while Keith circled the areas.

“And if they were seen, they couldn’t have been too far from their bases!” Pidge said now understanding.

They spent almost the entire day in the room of requirement. It was 11 at night when they finally finished marking off the different possible routes and bases. Feeling exhausted but still full of excitement, the paladins and knight went back to their dorms.

As they walked through the corridors their feet clattered on the floor. Reaching an intersection, they nodded at each other and went their separate ways. Pidge and Allura took a left while Keith and Lance took the sharpest right. They cold hear the quiet chattering of the two girls echoing back to them as they began their walk down the hall.

“So, they figured it out huh? Always thought I would be the one but you know,”

“Yes, I had complete faith in you, but good for Keith and Lance.”

“Hm, well, I’m desperate to know, what did you say to Keith to shut him up.”

“Well…” Thankfully the two finally dropped out of earshot. Keith looked like a ripe tomato. Lance bounced down the corridor next to him, their footsteps perfectly in time with one another. “Hey yeah, what did ‘Lura say?”

“Don’t want to talk about it”

“Alright man, no pressure”

“What?”

“Yeah, no pressure, I got stuff I don’t want to tell people, no judgement.” Lance was clearly in a good mood, he was sure Lance was going to press him. The Latino looked at him, and he must have seen his face because he soon uttered, “Look, I was just saying I get it.” He smiled a little, and Keith smiled back. “So, well done on solving our big problemo dude,” Dude? That was new.

“You weren’t so far behind me,”

“Nah, you gave me a hint,”

“I’m sure you would’ve solved it for yourself given the chance,”

“No need to be nice,” he said, as they rounded a corner, and a ghost waved at them, “Hey there Friar! Long time no see! Anyway, I know you’re smarter than me.”

“You are smarter than you give yourself credit for.” They lapsed back into silence, but Lance had the largest smile decorating his face and a dusting of pink flattering his face. His eyes sparkled with the light of the torches that adorned the walls. Keith was in a state of ecstasy, eyes filled with true joy for the first time in weeks. The tiredness seemed to lift from his face while the two walked down the hall. As they rounded the last corner, Lance patted him on the shoulder, his eyes reflecting some kind of cheekiness that held residence in his soul and Keith almost lost himself in those bright eyes.

“Race you.” The two stumbled after each other down the corridor at speed and crashed into one another upon reaching the fat lady, Keith shouted out a password as the two fell through the portrait hole giggling. They proceeded to race each other through the dorm until they reached their room as a prefect shushed them.

***

Pidge felt giddy with anticipation. They finally, finally had leads for her family, somewhat. She practically inhaled her breakfast and went up to the room of requirement early, she knew Hunk had seen her leave the table and would tell the others that she had headed over early. She examined the maps thoroughly and felt incredibly annoyed with herself that she didn’t see the connections from before. There were about 20 or so marked off areas which could be prisons. The others came in about 10 minutes after her and started circling off bits of the map.

“The prisons could have different types of work to be done like making of illegal magical artifacts and objects. Maybe they have some kind of trade or system. Then, naturally, they need bases for all the galra to stay.” Pidge nodded along to Allura’s words. She was really grateful for the group of friends she was stuck with; they were all incredibly intelligent after all.

“My dad and brother are two of the best aurors out there, they could be kept in places to do with advanced spell casting.”

“It’s true, but how far will it get us? We’re not sure about the ongoings of the bases, they could be anywhere,” said Keith. Trust him to bring in the negativity. Shiro stared at the map intently, then pointed to a forest close to Hogwarts.

“Here, I was close to Hogwarts which meant I could apparate easier. We weren’t taken anywhere else, I remember being part in some kind of fighting arena for prisoners, they had spells on the walls so we wouldn’t be able to get out. I don’t know if they’ve been moved since then, but the Holts are known for their spell casting ability which the galra would probably find entertaining.”

“So, this is our lead, Whistman’s Wood. Cool, we’re this much closer.”

“I think we should try a new approach,” Keith said pacing by the wall, most likely asking for something. “Why do we need leads if we already have the location?” Hunk asked confused.

“We have a probable location, not definite. I read in a few books that if you shout random words to a radio, you could pick up a secret station. If we get the right one, we could find a secret transmission station for the galra and if we’re very lucky, maybe some kind of secret intelligence which is galra opposed.”

“Great idea let’s make a start,” Allura said in her usual peppy manner.

Keith placed the small silver radio on the table and turned it on. They all sat around and started yelling out random words to do with the galra.

Two hours later, they still had nothing. “Murder,” Lance said for the 10th time. The current radio station was blabbering on about how the ministry was doing everything to protect from galra attacks and such, fitting. “It’s not murder, shut up,” Pidge said with her head in her hands.

“Um, slavery,” Hunk said, and nothing happened.

“Purple monsters?” inquired Allura. Keith got out Marmora’s journal and flicked through the pages.

“From wizard to monster, a monster you’ll be. Monster forever with magic supreme?” Static sounded and a deep female voice cleared her throat. Everyone smiled in excitement.

“This is a recording. You insolent pests against our Lord Zarkon of the galra have found what we call the trapped network. We will now be tracing your radio and soon the galra mark will shine above your dwelling.” The recording shorted out and everyone groaned.

“How about in the actual Latin?” asked Lance.

“Veneficus de monstro, monstrum eris. Amet monstro, supremo aeternum,” Keith said with a sour expression. Once again, the radio crackled. And again, the recording played. Pidge slumped in her seat and Lance slid onto the floor. Keith flicked through Marmora’s book to see if there was anything they missed.

“Vrepit sa.” Everyone looked at him strangely, then the radio crackled again, and a smooth male voice took over.

“And we have movements from the western areas, transportation for against us. Basics kept by Londinium, Aurors in Scocie orientalis, Cold ministries in Orbis. Aurors never move, for all the new ones joining us, the auror rings are in Scocie orientalis. By the sacred learning palace is where the fighting occurs.” Pidge gaped in shock; the radio told them where her family was!

“Wait, where are those locations?” asked Lance.

“Kinda seems like Zarkon has a thing for Latin. Londinium is easy enough. Scocie means Scotland, orientalis means west, the aurors are kept in west Scotland by us. I think we can assume the scared learning palace is Hogwarts,” Keith said expertly.

Damn him and his knowledge of an important language, Pidge was supposed to be the smartest of the group. Well, there was no reason why she wasn’t.

“So, we have it, all we need now is a way to find out exactly where.” Everyone nodded to her.

* * *

Over Easter, they made many more guesses about where the so called auror ring could be. They narrowed it down to anywhere in the forest but had no way to get there. They spent months trying to come up with plans for how to get out of school to go rescue the Holts. Sadly, none worked, and most weren’t even feasible. However Lance seemed to have gained some confidence about his intellect and started to suggest more ideas to the group. And during spring a small patch of violets grew in a secluded corner of the grounds. Lance picked one and put it in a small vase, to remind him of home, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for keeping reading and as usual I welcome criticism with open arms. Also, comment if you think you know what's up with Allura


	4. Newfound Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klance, Klance, Klance. A godlike ship is finally sailing, at least a little, to their own surprise and to their friends and other's families.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My summary sounded like notes, whatever, tis true and you my apparent readers will be rewarded for reading this far with some klance fluff and friendship.

After the sudden progress with Voltron, Keith and Lance had become considerably more friendly towards one another. Most of their arguments and insults seemed to have changed from being so antagonising into playful banter. It seemed like a weight had lifted from the team’s shoulders and the constant pressure to avoid mass confrontation had disappeared.

Allura wore a frown a lot less, Pidge was happy with the respite she had gotten (however was extremely disappointed that all her popcorn was now going to waste), Hunk claimed that now everyone was the best of friends he could finally bake a cake he’d been planning for months. Shiro was the happiest with this change, he had been trying his hardest to convince the two to be friends for some time and loved to tease Keith because of it.

Though the two adamantly denied being friends, the entire team could see it. The two had clearly become closer, they collaborated on the quidditch pitch now, shared theories about Voltron, occasionally they would sit together at breakfast. The strange feud they had haunted them, still there but less prominent (and problematic). The change in their dynamic may not have been seen by the whole school, but to team Voltron, this was an improvement.

***

Lance had a very, very rough day. Classes were harsh and he had to endure serious heartbreak! He felt like he had finally hit the lowest point in his life. He trudged up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room and found it devoid of his friends.

They had been doing so well with Voltron and it was close to the end of the year so Allura had graciously declared three days off to relax. Everyone was in favour of this movement, besides Keith, as usual. Lance always admired how he was so dedicated to Voltron. He admired all his friends! Not just Keith, and Keith was not properly friend. And no, not jumping to conclusions.

He took out his notebook and went to his and Hunk’s private chat. “Hey, I’m feeling down. Bro talk?” The response came in an instant but wasn’t the one he had been hoping for. “Sorry buddy, I’m hanging out with other friends,” replied the glistening yellow ink.

“Oh who?”

“Shay and Romelle.”

“Shay? Shay as in Shay the girl you’ve been crushing on since first year?”

“She’s right next to me! I’m sorry but I can’t, tomorrow?” Lance sighed, Hunk got to hang out with a girl he liked, unlike himself. He next wrote to Pidge.

“Hey, I wanna best friend to talk to. Can u come to Gryffindor common room?” The response took a bit more time to get through.

“I’m with the radio. Picking up different signals and frequencies to do with people against galra. It’s fun. And I’m busy. Sorry ma dude.” Of course, she was busy. Was he allowed to chat with Allura? They were friends, weren’t they? He turned to the blue and pink cornered pages.

“Hey princesa, can we hang out?” It took 10 seconds for her to reply and her handwriting wasn’t to its usual perfection.

“Preoccupied. Another time perhaps?” She always wrote in a formal manner, though he wasn't sure why her writing wasn't up to it's usual standard.

Who else could he talk to? Wait, no. No, no, no, no, not Keith. Maybe he wasn’t even available, but it wouldn’t hurt to try, right. They never really chatted about this kind of thing. It was always banter and friendly competition. He flicked to the red and blue cornered pages; they were the only ones in his book which were empty. They may have started being a bit more friendly to each other but that was for the benefit of the team. But Lance would be lying if he said he didn’t like being strange, almost friends with Keith.

“Any chance you wanna hang out?” He shouldn’t write everyone else turned him down, that would be rude. He almost dropped the notebook in shock. “Sure, why not. I’ve read all my books anyway.” A minute or so later Keith came down the third-year staircase and walked over to Lance. “Hey,” he said simply.

“I really need a friend right now,” Lance groaned and sat Keith on the couch they always studied on. Keith looked concerned; could he see that Lance was actually upset for once rather than just being dramatic? Barely anyone ever had been able tell, just came with being a good liar and always hiding. Come to think of it, no one had ever been able to tell when he was being serious or not. Was Keith able to?

“What’s wrong? Did you get in a fight or something? Bad ending or chapter from a book?”

“Have you actually ever felt so awful because of a chapter?”

“From a good book,” Lance sniggered, and Keith crossed his arms defensively. “How could you? Books are incredible and an excellent escape from the real world.”

“Is that why you’re always reading?”

“Partly, so what’s up. I can tell when you’re being annoying and when you’re being sincere. So, what hurt you?” Lance felt lost for words, Keith knew him! Keith was able to tell when he was actually upset. He felt his pulse increase a little.

“I asked out Nyma.”

“Oh? What did she say? Were you sincere or did you use a dumb pick up line?”

“They’re not dumb.” Keith rolled his eyes. “Fine maybe a little. She turned me down, nicely though. She said it’s because she’s dating Rolo, old captain, and she would consider it if she wasn’t already taken.”

“Well at least she was nice about it. I mean, she always struck me as someone who would seem bitchy at first but actually be a really nice person.”

“I think I can see that. But I was really hoping, y’know, we play the same position and she’s always nice to me. Not to mention gorgeous.”

“So, are you really upset or just disappointed?”

“I think both, I just really wanted her to say yes. She’s just amazing. You can admit, that right?”

“She’s a really good team member and beater.”

“But, she’s also really hot.”

“You’ve mentioned that many times.” Lance cocked his head to one side then stared at him intensy. Keith looked incredibly confused. “Are you not straight?”

“Where would you get that idea from? Did I give off straight vibes?” Keith asked, mocking Lance’s usual dramatic tone.

“Dude, are you gay?”

“What gave me away?” he deadpanned.

“Awesome! Finally, I have someone to talk about boys with.”

“Who can’t you talk with?”

“Pidge and Hunk are pan, I think Allura’s also bi but we’re not close like that and Shiro’s an adult.”

“You make a fair point.”

“Duh. Quick, hottest boy in our year, Hunk.” Keith nodded. “5th year on three. One, two-”

“Lotor,” they both said in unison and burst into a fit of giggles.

“Seriously though, how does he get his hair to flow like that? It’s crazy! And he does not have a flaw on his face! I don’t think he has a skincare regimen and it takes me hours to look this good,” said Lance gesturing to himself.

“And he’s so well built. Not to mention his ass is like, damn.” Lance’s mouth dropped open and Keith smirked at him. “Keith, did you really just say that?”

“Did you hear me correctly?”

They spent an hour or so talking about nothing but boys. Lance felt like he really needed it after being so heartbroken by yet another girl. After a while they lapsed into silence. “Thanks for being a good friend, I really needed one right now.”

“I mean, we’re a team, right?” Lance smiled at Keith, then frowned. “What?” Keith asked unsure.

“But we’re not like, officially friends though.” Keith looked down, he looked quite sad. Lance wondered what was playing through his mind. Then he remembered all their ‘real’ talks. Keith talked about never having friends before, never being able to so never knew what he was missing. Lance felt terrible for outright saying that. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be right.” Keith looked up hopefully.

“Really?”

“Yeah dude, really. This rivalry thing got old like, so fast. So much easier to be friends, right?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Well then,” Lance held his hand up to be shook, “Keith Kogane, will you be one of my best friends?” Keith smiled and was about to take Lance’s hand when he said, “Um no. If we’re going to be friends, you shake with the gloves off.”

Keith gasped in faux annoyance and Lance fell back laughter rocking his sides. He sat back up and saw that Keith was actually taking off his gloves. The gloves he’d never seen him without! They shook hands firmly and Lance realised he actually did have really soft hands, he wondered why he always wore the gloves.

“Dude, your hands are so soft!”

“Don’t be an asshole,” he said and pulled his gloves back on. He suddenly looked serious.

“Can I trust you?” he asked. Lance considered this. Out of all his friends Hunk was definitely his closest as he knew him for so long, but Keith somehow was the one he seemed to trust most. He knew about Keith and Shiro’s backstory and wondered if the same was true for him.

“With your life,” he said simply and internally cursed himself for saying something so stupid.

“I’m going to show you something I’ve never shown anyone else before and have barely seen for myself.”

“Oh, really?” Lance said cheekily. It was just a poor choice of words, he didn’t want anything like that with Keith, they were just friends. And now he could actually say that. They weren’t just rivals or frenemies, they were friends.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Kosmo.” Keith said rolling his eyes.

“Who said my mind was in the gutter?” Suddenly, Lance wasn’t in the Gryffindor common room anymore, it was Dumbledore’s office. “What are we doing here?” Keith grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to a mirrored cabinet. He opened it and inside was a stone bowl filled with a clear, silvery liquid. “What is that?”

“It’s called a pensive, you can see things in it,” he turned to directly face Lance, “You said I could trust you, with my life, so that’s what I’m doing.”

He put the tip of his wand to his head and gently pulled out a few strands of a silvery wispy thing. It clung to the end of his wand. He tapped it on the rim and the strands fell into the basin, the liquid started swirling around. He took a bottle of another wispy white thing off a stand and poured it into the stone bowl. He took Lance’s hand and tipped them both in. They fell forwards and resurfaced into some sort of office. Two men sat at the desk of a woman scribbling away. Keith looked coldly at them, what was going on?

“And what do you have in mind?” asked the darker broader man. The woman looked up quizzically. “The child is powerful, no doubt his name would be known for not just for the killing but his power too.”

“He didn’t ask that, we want to know what will become of the child,” the other smaller man said coldly. The woman’s eyes scrolled down her paper.

“He is a danger to magical and non-magical society. He has no living relatives, and no one would be willing to take him in as their own. The best we can do is foster care.”

“That childcare system is crude and unjust.”

“He killed a mass murder without a spell, you just saw the illusion. Foster care would most likely suppress all that power and turn him into an average wizard.” Lance felt incredibly confused, what was happening?

“Keith, what’s going on?” He was silent. Suddenly a man burst into the room, it was minister Alfor. He looked exactly the same as he did in the papers, really quite cool.

“Ms. Umbridge, where are we?” He asked.

“We have just decided the child shall be put in the foster care system minister.”

“No, we have not!” the darker man said indignantly.

“That system does not deserve to be funded,” Minister Alfor said crossing his arms.

“What’s so bad about foster care?” Lance asked. “You’ll find out,” whispered Keith. The woman called Umbridge fumed.

“It is a childcare system which works perfectly. The child will be feared by all wizards, can you tell me in full honesty that you do not fear the child?” The men went silent. “Exactly. He is powerful and dangerous.”

“He’s only one.”

“And killed the most powerful wizard of all time. My point, he is only one. Skilled aurors were killed in the process adding scars to his face. A little oppression never hurt anyone.” The men sitting down scoffed.

“You are forgetting the fact of his power Ms. Umbridge. The oppression he most definitely will endure, it is possible we end up with an obscurial on our hands,” Alfor said voice unfaltering. Lance’s mouth dropped open, why were they talking about obscurials? 

“Minister makes a good point,” the two men said at the same time.

“It is our only option, no one else will take him in. This is the fact of the matter, a child murderer lost his parents to he-who-must-not-be-named, he needs a home, and this is the only thing we can provide. I do want him to prosper, but this is the only way. Sign here minister.” Alfor walked over and signed Umbridge’s paper reluctantly.

Lance finally understood, he looked to Keith and felt a sympathy so great he had never felt before.

Everything swirled and they were in a drab room.

Lance looked around at all the children. They all seemed to be about 4 or 5 and they all played together. Lance had always loved kids and smiled at the scene before him. Then his eyes drifted to a small child sitting alone in a corner, reading a book. The child had pitch black hair and dark yet bright violet eyes which would appear grey at first glance. Lance would know him anywhere. He smiled.

“Is that you?” he asked Keith, pointing to the boy. He nodded. “Keeith! Stop being such a stick in the mud,” called one of the boys. Little Keith simply turned the page. “Oy!” the little boy marched over to him, Keith didn’t even glance up.

“That sass!” Lance said dramatically and Keith rolled his eyes as they walked over to get a better look.

“That’s it.” The boy tried to punch Keith in the mouth, but his fist hovered by him. He tried to move it, but his fist stayed firmly where it was. “Hey!” he shrieked. Little Keith shut his book with one finger inside to keep the page and pushed the boy’s fist away. When it was out of his face he continued reading. The boy struggled but he couldn’t move his fist.

“Ms. Flic! Ms. Flic!” A woman ran in. “What is it now?” she asked, irritated.

“Keith trapped my hand. He’s doing magic!” He spat the last word as if it was some kind of curse. The woman marched over and Keith pulled Lance out of the way so she wouldn’t go through him.

“What do you have to say for yourself Keith?” The black-haired boy finally spoke.

“He tried to hit me.” His voice sounded exactly the same as Keith’s, just higher pitched, which was understandable.

“Is this mine?” asked the woman pulling the book from Keith’s hands. “Hey! You lost my page!” he yelled. It was very Keith, Lance smiled proudly, then his smile disappeared. The woman picked him up by the wrist and the other boy moved his hand. She dragged him across the room, and he tried to get the book from her.

“What makes you think you can read anyway?”

“I was about to find out if Katniss got the medicine to Peeta. I don’t want him to die too, Rue already died.” He read the hunger games at 5 years old, adorable.

“Stealing isn’t to be taken lightly in this household Keith. And using magic, do we use magic in this house?”

“He was going to hit me, and you lost my page.”

“You shouldn’t be reading, and take it like a man, you probably deserved it. And because it’s two rules against the house, no food for 4 days.” Lance’s eyes widened in shock.

“But.”

“No buts Keith, you’ll be gone soon anyway.” She released his wrist and he looked down ashamed. “Can I at least have the book, I really don’t want Peeta to die, he doesn’t deserve it.” The woman walked off, book in hand and leaving Keith alone. He walked into a separate room and turned off the lights.

The scene swirled again.

They were in a home office of sorts with a couple and another ministry official. Keith looked a few years older now. “We just can’t provide a home for him anymore. He attacks the other children and never listens to instructions. Along with the fact that he uses magic,” the man said. Keith shrank into his chair.

“I understand the attacking and not following instructions argument, what’s wrong with a little levitation. It’s normal for children from 7-10.” The woman smiled at the official.

“You must be new; the foster care system does not condone magic. This boy,” the woman whacked him on the head and the official flinched whereas Keith did not, he looked used to it, “has used magic ever since he was put in the system. We tried to make him fit for society but like the other 28 homes, it did not work. We want him off our hands, he’s dangerous and frightens the other children.”

“I-I understand. Come with me Keith,” the ministry official said, and Keith hopped off the chair to follow them out the door. Before he headed out, he stuck his middle finger at the couple and took the official’s hand.

The scene swirled again but for a bit longer this time.

“I’ve skipped all the really bad stuff, just showing you the ok points so there’s only a few,” Keith said, voice devoid of emotion.

They were in a kitchen. A man and a woman sat across from Keith. He looked almost 10 now. “Tell us honey, what’s bothering you.”

“I can’t be here anymore,” he said. His voice was a bit deeper but hadn’t reached the tone which Keith now spoke with. The woman looked concerned.

“But why? We were sceptical at first because of your past with the system but you’re a great kid, we don’ t want you to go.” Keith smiled weakly.

“And that’s why I have to go. I’ve only been in one good home before. They had a kid who was also a squib, but they didn’t believe in the whole magic oppression. Their son hated what I could do so one day he burned himself on the stove and told his parents I did it. No one would believe a foster kid who wasn’t your own over your own child. I was passed around again.”

“Oh god Keith, we’re so sorry.”

“That isn’t the worst of it. I don’t want to lose control, not again.”

“Control? What are you talking about?”

“When I turned 9, three homes before now, I made a stack of cards fly to my hand. The father struck me across the face in front of all the other kids. I was so tired of him hitting me that I wanted to do it back. I made him fly into the wall and he broke through it. I was taken away and knocked out so I wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Spent a few months in a detention centre and they never told me if the man lived.” They all went silent.

“I think you need to go Keith,” the man said quietly. He got down from the counter and headed to a door.

“I know, I already called the ministry, an official’s on the way, you guys are one of the good places, remember that.”

The room swirled again.

They were in a child’s room, it looked like an orphanage of sorts. The door opened and there stood Shiro. He looked a few years younger, right arm in place, scar free from his face and hair fully black. “Who are you?” asked Keith. Shiro smiled and walked in, closing the door behind him. “My name is Takashi Shirogane, you can call me Shiro.”

“What are you doing here, Shiro. Are you an official? You don’t look the type; they all wear the same faces and suits. Are you going to take me away again? They said this was the place for lost causes.” Shiro’s eyes widened in shock, Lance felt stunned.

“Did someone say that to you?” asked Shiro as the exact thought passed through Lance’s head. “They said it as soon as I walked through the door. Why are you here?”

“I’m a professor.”

“You’re going to do something to me? I know I’m a screw up, but 9 years is a long time to wait to be ‘fixed’ and brought to some kind of normalcy.” Shiro went silent.

Lance felt awful, he had never actually wrapped his head around what Keith went through as a child. He had never felt so ignorant in his life. He looked at Keith and realised he was watching the scene with a small smile, what was there to be happy about?

“I don’t think those kinds of professors exist Keith, I’m a teacher at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. I’m a wizard, and you are too.”

“Well I knew that.” Keith sniggered next to Lance; he really didn’t see what was so funny.

“You are a powerful wizard and Hogwarts can turn you into an even more powerful one. I want to take you out of here, from what I’ve heard you’ve had a bad life and could use an older brother of sorts.” Shiro smiled. “You would do that?” asked Keith visibly shocked.

“I’ve always wanted a little brother.”

“So, you’re a teacher at magic school? And you want me to go to magic school because I’m a wizard?”

“Yes, and it’s not magic school it’s called Hogwarts.

“Whatever magic man.” Keith laughed. “Let’s go, I’ve got a flat in London, it’s going to be your new home. Pack your stuff.” Little Keith got off his bed and put some clothes and a few books in a bag. He put it on his shoulder and faced Shiro.

“Is this all your stuff?”

“It’s more than I used to have. Do you have books where you live? I’ve read all mine at least 5 times.”

“Naturally.” Shiro held out his hand and Keith took it. They were about to apparate when the scene paused.

“Why isn’t it moving?” asked Lance. Keith sighed.

“What I’m going to show you next, I haven’t fully seen. I don’t know how I’m going to handle seeing it first-hand but if you want to stop, we can go back.” Lance had never seen Keith so scared.

“I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to see but whatever it is, I can handle it, if you can. If you get too scared, just hold my hand and squeeze as tightly as you want.” Keith slowly took Lance’s hand, in a sort of shaking hands way. It was loose and neither was holding on tightly.

The scene swirled and melted into the bedroom of a house.

It was a really nice bedroom, minimalistic with awards on the walls and a cot by the far wall. Keith looked around in amazement, Lance could guess where they were. There was a loud crash and the lights went out. A man ran into the room cradling a small child who Lance couldn’t see, it had to be Keith. His hair was the same shade as Keith’s. A woman wearing some kind of body suit and a hooded cloak went in after him. Keith tensed and started squeezing Lance’s hand, it was his parents. Lance realised Keith had never actually seen the faces of his parents.

“He’s here. What are we going to do?” asked Keith’s dad.

“He’s here for me, no doubt angry. Apparate, keep him safe,” his mother said simply.

“I’m not going anywhere without you!”

“Who said you were. I’ll give you a head start and distract him, you have Keith. This is his, if anything goes wrong, make sure he has it on him at all times. In later years he’ll unlock but now you need to go.” Keith’s mother reached into her cloak and brought out a knife, it was the dagger he saw Keith holding once. Come to think of it, it looked similar to another knife he’d seen somewhere. She strapped the dagger to Keith’s side on a small belt and hugged the man and Keith.

“If all goes well, I’ll see you at headquarters.” She ran out of the room wand brandished.

“Krolia!” Keith’s father shouted. “Krolia,” Keith muttered, he must have not known it was her name.

“Avada Kadavra!” yelled a deep voice and the corridor became a flash of bright green light. Keith squeezed Lance’s hand so hard he thought he was going to pull it clean off. Lance felt tears in his eyes, he couldn’t even comprehend what it must be like to see your own mother die before you, or rather hear it. A tall scarred man walked into the room and Keith’s father backed away. Lance’s blood boiled, Lord Zarkon.

“No need to be frightened,” he called in a soft voice, he towered a head and a half above Keith’s father, “Let me kill the child and all memory of the meddlesome Yoraks will be destroyed, you will be spared.”

“Over my dead body,” Keith’s father said shakily and fumbled for his wand.

“That was my original intention. Avada Kadavra!” His father screamed and shielded Keith from the blast of green light, his body dropped to the floor. Lance felt as though all the blood from his body had drained away and he was as dead as Keith’s father. Zarkon laughed and pointed his wand to the sky, he uttered the curse of the galra mark. Baby Keith was pushing at his father’s unmoving body.

“Pop, pop! Pop, pop, pop,” he cried and took his father’s wand from the floor. He looked up at Zarkon confused and scared. Zarkon pointed his wand at Keith and he looked terrified.

“Say goodbye Yorak.” Keith grasped the wand with both hands and screamed. A black and purple streaked cloud-like magic burst from his body and his irises glowed purple. The dark light consumed the entire room.

“Impossible!” shouted Zarkon. Lance covered his eyes so he wouldn’t be blinded. His hand dropped to his side and he saw Zarkon on the ground, dead. Baby Keith was still holding his father’s wand, a pink scar covered almost his entire right cheek. He didn’t cry, he didn’t call, he sat on the ground by his father’s body and stared at the wand. There was a series of pops and a crowd of ministry wizards flooded the room. the scene paused again, and Keith took his hand from Lance’s. Lance turned to face him; tears dried in his eyes.

“I-I… I’m sorry. I was such a dick to you for so long and I was so ignorant-”

“Don’t,” Keith said. His face was stricken with grief, but he didn’t cry, not like Lance did. Lance always knew Keith was strong, emotionally and physically, he was pretty jealous of his ability to hide so well. “Don’t apologise for trying to be a rival to a kid who you didn’t understand. I get it, you didn’t know, but don’t apologise for something you can’t control. But we’re friends now, right? And you understand why I’m a prick a lot.”

“You’re not a prick, just a kid with trauma. And I am your friend, come here.” Lance pulled Keith’s arm, spinning him to his chest, he wrapped his arms around Keith tightly. When Lance hugged, he squeezed, he wanted to give all the emotion he held at once. He always hoped someone would hug back with all the emotion he gave. When Keith hugged, he hugged softly, giving as little of himself as possible but not trying to overhug, as if that was a thing. But what he did do was give all the emotion the other needed in a soft but not squeezing way. they both needed that hug, it was enough for both of them.

They let go, but still stood shoulders touching, and the scene swirled to show a living room.

It had framed pieces of writing and pictures of planets on the walls. Keith was holding a small Kosmo sitting on a couch, Shiro sat next to him. Shiro’s boyfriend stood next to him. Lance recognised this Keith, this was two years ago, probably a day or so before going to Hogwarts.

“They’re going to be terrified of you Keith,” said Shiro sadly. “Why?” Keith stroked Kosmo.

“They never told you how your parents died, and you survived, did they?” Keith shook his head. “When you were a baby, oneish or so, he-who-must-not-be-named came to your house and tried to kill you and your parents.”

“Do you mean Zarkon, Lord Zarkon?”

“Yeah. Anyway, your mother’s body was never found but your father’s and Z-Zarkon’s was. Powerful investigators found out what happened.” Keith started stroking Kosmo harder, Lance realised at this point Keith must not have known anything, how awful.

“So, what happened? Does it have something to do with my scar? Is it why you only let me leave the house for school?”

“Yeah. The investigators found out,” he paused again and looked at Keith. There was something, Lance had only seen spark in Shiro’s eyes twice, fear. “Zarkon killed your father with an unforgivable curse. After, he fired the galra symbol into the air to let people know he killed again. It’s otherwise known as the dark mark. When he was distracted, you grabbed your father’s wand, who had been protecting you when he died, you.” He stopped again. Keith hugged Kosmo to him tightly and Adam sat down and put his arm around Shiro’s shoulders.

“Go on Takashi, he needs to know who he is.” Shiro sighed before saying, “You let off a burst of raw magic, so powerful, it killed Zarkon. Hence, giving you that scar.” Keith stopped squeezing Kosmo, Lance could practically see the thoughts running through his head. ‘It all made sense now. Why he had been thrown from home to home. He probably still didn’t know why Shiro basically adopted him a year prior.'

“Why did you take me out of the home?” he asked quietly. This time, it was Adam who answered.

“Because you’re just an 11-year-old boy who needed a family. Keith, you’re like a little brother to us and we don’t care what happened when you were too young to know what you were doing. Plus, you got Zarkon out of the world and most of the galra are gone.” After Adam spoke, Shiro smiled at him as well and said, “You’re a powerful child, and Hogwarts is going to turn you into a powerful wizard. I’ll look forward to seeing you in class.” They both gave him tight hugs. The scene swirled again, and they stumbled out of the pensive.

“I haven’t shown that to anyone before, not Shiro and definitely not Dumbledore.” Lance felt his heart beat a little faster, he felt special.

“I’m glad you trust me, probably wouldn’t trust myself with that kind of emotional trauma.” Keith smiled warmly, it was completely unfair how he could look so soft and sweet yet hot at the same time. Nope, no, no, he’s your friend Lance, nothing more than that and nothing will ever be more than that ( Why? Shush! Why do you want this. He’s not your type! He is objectively attractive, I can accept that, I can say that! Jeez, what, can’t two attractive, gay/bi men be friends. You aren’t men! Shut up!).

“You’re more intellectually strong and intelligent than you give yourself credit for. Thanks for being able to earn my trust, I don’t give it very easily.” Kosmo hopped into Keith’s arms and they teleported to the third-year dorm (thankfully empty).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you enjoyed the development and thanks for reading this far. comments as always are welcomed no matter what they say.


	5. Frenemies Getting Friendly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cuban culture with our favourite latin king who piloted the red and blue lion in another life, Lance takes everyone to Cuba. Keith and Lance are on good terms for the first time ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly written by my editor and it's her first time fully writing up instead of just editing because I had writers block for a month. I hope you like it.

“Wait, wait, wait. So, all of a sudden, you two are finally friends?” asked Pidge flabbergasted. The Gryffindor boys shared a look. It was Saturday morning at the Ravenclaw table. Keith and Lance came down at their usual time but instead of the usual banter or more usual silence, they were both laughing as though one had just shared a joke. It was weird, and Pidge needed to know everything.

“Yeah,” they said at the same time. Everyone looked at them in shock. Whenever they spoke at the same time, it would start an argument. That was confirmation enough.

“Looks like Keith made his first friend,” Pidge said mockingly.

“What do you mean?” asked Lance.

“I approached him and asked to be friends, then we were all roped into Voltron and all became friends automatically besides you and Keith. Therefore, this is the first time Keith at least tried to make a friend and succeeded.” Everyone started laughing and Keith looked incredibly offended.

“Hey, hey, stop making fun of Keith,” Lance said almost warningly. That was also new, even Keith looked shocked. “That’s my job.” Everyone sniggered again and Keith smiled a little, then flicked Lance on the shoulder. They got into a flicking fight which was more playful than their normal fights, and far more comedic to the others, it was clear they were actually friends now.

“So, has everyone asked their parental guardians?” Lance asked as he leaned over the Ravenclaw table at dinner. Everyone looked up. “I always stay the full year at Hogwarts which means my summer is the one time I have with my parents. I would love to see the Cuban beach but sadly I can’t,” Allura said in her most formal tone.

“I asked my mum, she was cool with it. She gets how I need my space and says that I can go as long as I get home half way through august at least,” Pidge said with her mouth full. Keith was brought up with impeccable manners and found the stark contrast between them to be a little funny as it was hard to understand her.

“My parents said since I could go again, it was actually pretty easy to convince them considering I haven’t seen them since the beginning of the year,” said Hunk who actually cared to stop eating while he talked.

“I haven’t asked Shiro yet,” Keith admitted.

“What?” groaned Lance, Pidge and Hunk all at the same time. Allura sniggered. “Why not?” asked Lance.

“I just forgot whenever I saw him. Plus, you only brought it up last week.”

“And an inordinate amount of time for simply asking if you could spend a month on the other side of the world,” Lance huffed. Inordinate was one of Keith’s favourite words, don’t ask him why, he just liked the way it rolled off one’s tongue. And Lance had a really nice pronunciation, why did that come to mind?

“What?” asked Lance as everyone looked at him strangely, except for Keith who knew of his good vocabulary. Keith rolled his eyes, sometimes Lance would drop the idiocy act and be helpful for once or simply act intelligently, to him it was common but to everyone else it would come as a shock.

“Just ask him for Satan’s sake.”

“Pidge!”

“Whaaaaat Alluraaaa?”

“Hey, why Satan?” Hunk looked genuinely intrigued.

“Oh my poor sweet Hunk, he is our lord and saviour, he curses us with sweet, sweet hellfire and drinks the marrow from our bones!”

“I’m going to be sick.” Retching sounds came from Hunk who was doubled over away from the table.

“Pidge, don’t traumatise the poor boy.” Lance patted his best friend on the back.

“Speak for yourself Lance, traumatising him is my job!”

“Sometimes I worry If you need to go to St Mungo’s permanent spell damage ward,” Keith said amused.

“Why thank you, Keith, I would love to chuck you off a moving broomstick too.”

“Screw yourself with a turtleneck sweater.”

“Bold of you to assume I haven’t already! Bye Bitches!” her laughter rang round the great hall as she went off to her lesson (she loved to be early even though she denied it) the others all looked at him in shock.

“What? It’s not my fault she’s a swear bear.”

“Keith!” Lance’s indignant tone rang out from beside him. “What?”

“You! You! MY dear baby cheeses! Ugh! Right We’re going to class before you do a Pidge and corrupt us all!” He grabbed him by the hand and started pulling him away from the table, struggling against Keith’s bizarre strength.

“Bye!” Keith waved to the group still at the table, “See you later!”

“What has gotten into you Keith!” said Lance, gesturing him up and down. He shrugged and they went to class.

“Shiro!” He was sitting on the hard wood of the table in his classroom when someone came in. He swung his legs round to see a slightly flushed and out of breath Keith standing in the middle of the room. “What brings you here?”

“Lance asked if it would be okay for me and Pidge and Hunk and Allura to go to Cuba with him over the summer. You know I’ve only been to the beach once and Lance says the beach is about ten minutes from his house or something and they have a beach hut and he and Hunk said something about surfing and it’s Lance’s birthday-” he broke to catch a breath

“Whoa there Keith,” Shiro said jumping off the table, “Lance, huh?”

“Yeah,”

“What happened to that rivalry thing you two had going on?”

“Friendly rivalry now,”

“Yeah?”

“Mmmhm” Huh, that was a new one for Shiro, maybe Keith was becoming more mature. “And how did this friendship thing happen?”

“We just agreed that we should be friends, he’s smart and all, nice, protective though. I think that’s why we started off hating each other.”

“Wow Keith, that’s very mature of you, I’m glad you’re finally making your own friends rather than being shoved into a group of strangers and being expected to get along.” He rested his hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Anyway I’ve been trying to ask if I can go for weeks but kept forgetting. He said something about his parents needing to know who’s coming and who’s not. Can I go?”

“Did you ask Adam?” Keith started to bounce on the balls of his feet. “Yes, He said I could go.”

“And you’re really sure about this? You two won't fall out? Won’t get homesick?”

“Yes, I’m sure Anyway, aren’t you all about team bonding and becoming better people for ourselves and society? Plenty of chances to better myself if I go.”

“You drive a hard bargain young man! But sure, you can go.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Yes!”

“-On one condition,”

“I’m listening…”

“Spend at least a month at home with Adam, and send us both postcards and letters! As many as possible, Gods know we both need it.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much! I promise!” Shiro gave him a small squeeze, he knew that Keith hates hugs, he just couldn’t help himself, that boy was so sweet when excited. The boy in question ran from the room, collided with a seventh year and rushed to his dorm, ecstatic.

* * *

It was the morning before they were due to leave and everyone ate quickly so that they would have time to get wayward things packed and ready. Pidge prided herself on already packing everything she needed and was volunteering to ‘help’ Allura with her stuff while she protested that she wasn’t even coming to Cuba. Hunk claimed that packing only ever took him 15 minutes but Lance knew he’d been ready for weeks, he’d shown him the swim trunks he’d bought two weeks ago. Keith, the little procrastinator, had barely started his packing so Lance elected himself ‘Pro Packing Invigilator’ in order to harass Keith (not to mention the others) into getting stuff done.

“You need enough stuff for an entire month Keith! Two pairs of pants and three tops isn’t enough!”

“Hey, I think you’ll find me very efficient, I’ll wear pyjamas all weekend! There’ll be less washing!”

“No! And why is all your stuff black? I’m buying you some tropical shirts when we get there, for God’s sake, add some colour into your life!”

“I have red! Is that not enough?”

“Nope! And that is one jacket! One! The matter is settled, you are getting tropical shirts, hibiscus flowers and all,”

“Noooooooo, my aesthetic, you’ve killed me!” Keith said, falling back dramatically onto his bed and bouncing a few pairs of socks off the bed. Lance flopped down next to him, then sat up and peered over him. “And your stupid dramatic self is rubbing off on me. You’re a nightmare you know that right?”

“Fair, fair, but you’re just as bad,” he said smirking, “See Keith, with that handsome face you could work any clothing you wanted,”

“Yeah? Then I want all black,”

“Emo!”

“Drama queen!”

“Yaas, I am a queen!” That comment started Keith off and soon they were both curled on the floor in fits of giggles. “Didn’t, ha-ha, you want- *wheeze* these socks?” Lance tried to speak through the giggles. Keith cleared his throat.

“Hm? Oh yeah.’’ As Lance stood to put the pair in his trunk, Keith noticed a small smile gracing the corner of his mouth. In the morning sun Lance’s eyes shone and Keith ended up staring at his beautiful face. His eyes followed the bridge of his nose, fell to his jaw and followed the line of his jaw to his mouth and dazzling smile then followed his cheeks back up to his eyes. He was… pretty.

“Hey! Earth to Keith! You good man?”

“Hm? Yeah.”

Somehow, after all their antics they actually managed to be productive and pack all their stuff into their trunks ready for the long journey back to London.

* * *

The group managed to cram themselves into one of the carriages (the ones led by thestrals), they considered taking two because Hunk and Lance had packed so much. Lance even had to sit on his trunk to get it to close, Pidge magicked some straps so it wouldn’t break open. Lance was a drama queen about the whole ordeal, something about the price of beauty in today’s society It had everyone scoffing.

They boarded the train with much trouble, shuffling into a compartment. “Sorry guys’ I’m going to sit with my other friends. I have been slightly neglecting them in favour of you and I kind of want to spend some more time with people my age.”

“‘Llura! you wound me!” Lance moaned in his trademark tone of irritation.

“Can it Lance, we don’t mind ‘Llura, betrayal is no longer surprising to us. To say we expected it would be unfair, but true,” Pidge said without looking up.

“Really Pidge?”

“Are you telling me it’s not true Hunk?”

“I really must go.” A chorus of ‘bye Alluras’ and ‘see ya’ came from the compartment, muffled by a bark from Kosmo. He was a fan of Allura.

“Kosmo, you attention whore,” Pidge had the ability to complain about almost anything and everything. “Pidge don’t call my dog a whore,” Keith said with a smile.

“It’s true.”

“Lance don’t encourage her.” Hunk was most definitely the mom-friend of the group.

“You thought it too!”

“I didn’t! You know I love Kosmo just as much as Keith does!”

“Impossible, he’s my dog and allowed all the attention he wants.”

Hills rolled past the window and the compartment fell into silence, the kind that only comes when good friends run out of things to say but are content enjoying each other's company. Pidge extracted a book from the folds of her cloak settled into a ‘comfy’ corner of the seat. Lance played with blue, Kosmo slept and Keith sat, cosy in the silence. Around halfway through the journey, while Hunk was writing a letter to his parents, the trolley lady came round. “Anything from the trolley dears?”

“Ah, yes, can I have a packet of fizzing whizbees, two of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, uhhhh--Oh and some jelly slugs! Yo, you guys want anything?” Lance asked looking over the array of confectionary and pastries.

“Yeah, grab us some chocolate frogs and peppermint toads.”

“Solid choice Hunk. Pidge?”

“Yeah, some fizzing whizbees and pepper imps for me- if Hunk freaking shares his toads for once!” She flipped a page in her book. “Done!”

“Alright, aaaand Keith? Anything for you?”

“Nah I’m good.”

“Okey dokey.” Lance handed the trolley lady some money and bid her farewell. She wobbled off down the hall to the next compartment.

Lance spilled the armfuls of sweets he was carrying onto his seat. Pidge snatched up her pepper imps. “What is your obsession with those?”

“They make you breathe fire, Hunk! Of Course I’m obsessed!” She said, cramming one into her mouth. “They kill your throat!”

“So what! Hey Keith, chuck us a cake will you?” A cake came flying into her lap, “Neat! Thanks.” Talk turned to sweets and which were the most superior. Hunk vouched chocolate frogs, Lance was a big fan of jelly slugs and Pidge, obviously, insisted on pepper imps.

However, the four seemed to agree that the peppermint toads (perfect combination of peppermint, chocolate and whimsy, without the tendency to jump out the window) were some of the best. Once finished with the majority of their sweets, they changed and a quiet chatter about quidditch, classes, homework and their plans for Cuba took over the cabin.

Remaining sweets were munched on as Lance regaled them with tales of his childhood growing up on sandy beaches, learning to surf and the recurring theme of getting pinched by crabs. Hunk was enthusiastic about the prospect of surfing; he too grew up learning to surf.

Eventually Keith fell into a slumber, slumped in his seat having already changed into muggle clothes before the trolley lady had come along. The others changed into their muggle clothes ready to get off the train.

Twenty minutes later, Keith was shaken awake as the train pulled into the station and the group stumbled onto the platform, trolleys bashing together. Two people, who looked like older versions of lance, stood by the wall. Lance beckoned his friends to follow and ran towards the man and the woman. The woman had a kind face, was surprisingly small and quickly wrapped her arms around the lithe figure of lance. “Lance! mi hijto, how are you?”

“Bueno Mamá, this is Keith and Pidge. They’re my friends. And obviously there’s Hunk,”

“Hunk mi niño, you have grown so big! So strong!”

“Thanks, Señora, Señor.”

“Hunk.”

“Nonsense darling, you know to call me Elena. And It’s good to finally meet you two, especially you Keith, Lance never shuts up about you!”

“!Mamá! Traición!”

“Really?” Keith was intrigued.

“Oh yeah, he really admires you, you know.”

“Mama!” Lance hissed, “Callate!”

“Lancito! No le hablas así a tu mamá! Dices lo siento!”

“Lo siento mamá.”

“Uh well, thanks I guess.” Well, that was awkward, and new, Lance admired him, it made him strangely proud. A warm fuzzy feeling took over his heart, which was broken as Veronica bounded up to her parents.

“Mama!” called a voice from across the platform. “Verónica, mi hijta! Look how much you’ve grown. Ahh but Lance is catching up! Where es your amiga, the one you said you would ask? Aska? Asxa? Oh right, yes Acxa!”

“I decided against bringing a friend,”

“Oh shame, I would have loved to meet her! Well, time es rushing so shall we go? Sí? Everyone here?”

She trotted off down the platform and through the wall, so fast they could barely keep up. Apart from long-legged Lance, walking at superspeeds ~~(God, those legs)~~.

They weaved their way through King’s Cross Station, clattering through the late crowds with the obnoxious sound of five heavily laden trolleys and four cats. They burst onto the street and were led to a small Beetle (the car), it looked barely big enough to hold two but Lance and Veronica jumped straight in. Mrs McClain took their trunks and shoved them in the boot, after a moment’s hesitation Hunk climbed into the car as well.

“Don’t worry, undetectable extension charm, highly improper, of course, technically we’re not allowed to experiment with no-maj technology but hey, how you gonna transport seven people across London? Also, it’s just fun,” Lance’s dad said from behind them. It was the first bit of English he spoke since Pidge and Keith had met him, for a moment he looked like a child filled with excitement at the prospect of a gift, then he regained his composure.

Pidge climbed in, then Keith. Surprisingly they all fit comfortably with pets on their laps or by their feet. Keith somehow ended up smooshed up against Lance, Hunk sat next to him. Pidge and Veronica sat across from them in a kind of black cab situation. The car shot off down the road at entirely unreasonable speeds for a city. It made Keith wonder if Mr McClain had passed his muggle driving test.

* * *

They arrived about half an hour later to a flat in Soho, overlooking a small street. Normally the journey would only take fifteen minutes but for some reason there were a bunch of roadworks and a surprising amount of traffic (hey who am I kidding, it’s central London, in summer, parties for days).

The group stumbled through the navy-blue door and into a pleasantly decorated hall. Hunk managed to almost knock over a coat stand but caught it at the last second before it could clatter loudly on the wooden floor. The place had four bedrooms, a kitchen and a lounge with a small sofa and an armchair. A coffee table stood proud in the centre of the room, shelves hung in an alcove and a potted yucca plant stood in the corner. Cats were released from cages and sent to roam free, but Kosmo opted for Keith's head as a more comfortable perch.

Bedroom arrangements were organised, Hunk and Lance were supposed to bunk together but Pidge’s personal brand of torture involved switching Hunk and Keith around. The final sleeping arrangement, after a lot of protest from Lance and Hunk, ended up being Lance and Keith sharing a room, Hunk and Pidge sharing a room, Lance’s parents sharing and Veronica keeping her own room. Sleeping bags were rolled out, bedding fluffed and pyjamas changed into.

Keith would personally like me to note that he did not stare at Lance in an oversized t-shirt (featuring a cat) and short blue shorts when he entered the room and yawned for precisely 2.5 seconds. Pidge, at the point where Keith supposedly did not stare at Lance, suggested that it was *late* and *time for bed* (it was only eight pm at the time).

The crew readied themselves for bed and slid into their respective sleeping quarters. Mrs. McClain had turned off the lights at nine but Keith couldn’t sleep. His first time staying over at a friend’s place and he couldn’t sleep. But this was Lance, He’d shared a room with Lance for three years now, what was the issue now? “Hey.” A whisper came from the bed beside him, he rolled over to see a bleary-eyed Lance staring at him. “Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah, Kosmo’s napping with Blue so I don’t have him and you were asleep so…”

“You could’ve woken me.”

“Nah you looked peaceful.”

“Trying to out-wake me?”

“The hell does that mean McClain?”

“No need to be so formal Kogane,”

“Fuck off,” Keith muttered

“Come again?”

“Fuck off.”

“Nah you love me really, you did say I was smart,”

“No, just that people underestimate you.”

“Same difference.”

The two chatted for about an hour before Lance drifted off again, his gentle snores filling the room. After that, Keith found it easy to fall into a slumber. Dreaming of sand and sea and Hawaiian floral print.

* * *

He woke to the smell of frying and the sound of pans clanking on a marble side, reminding him of when Adam would cook breakfasts and tease Shiro for not having the basic skill of cooking and attempt to teach him something as simple as an omelette. Shiro would burn it miserably and they would sit at the kitchen island laughing at his attempts, or slump on the sofa with Kosmo in the armchair and talk about anything and everything. Yawning himself out of sleep and rubbing his bleary eyes, he shook Lance awake and stumbled through the house, pursuing the scent of food. Lance’s mum slid him a plate of scrambles egg on toast and bacon and pointed to the dining table, “Sit, sit.” She patted his head and returned to cooking.

“Looks delicious Señora.”

“Eat dearie we have to get going soon, is Lance awake?”

“Yeah, I think he’s getting Hunk and Pidge,”

“Bueno.”

A moment later Hunk, Pidge and Lance stumbled through the door, Lance now wearing an oversized sweater. They sat at the table and ate and laughed, Keith slowly glowing a brighter red as he kept noticing what Lance was wearing.

Not that he liked him, only that boys in oversized sweaters hit different and it was too early to control his feelings. Don’t forget that he is also a teenaged boy who hangs out with very attractive people; it’s natural for him to get flustered at such cuteness.

Pidge was grinning like a maniac though, so he wrestled with his sleepy self to stop staring at Lance’s bed head and focus on his breakfast.

They gathered their belongings and dressed in light clothing, ready for the summer sun. Lance almost crashed into Keith what with all the running around at seven o’clock in the God damn morning, they stood in the doorway staring at each other and Lance’s eyes were drawn to the shoes he was wearing. “OH mY GOD!” “What?” What had he done now?

“Keith Kogane.”

“Yes?” he groaned.

“Are those crocks I see adorning your feet?” God he could be so annoying.

“Yes?”

“Oh this is priceless, figures though, obviously you of all people would own a pair of the skankiest shoes around.”

Keith shook his foot at Lance, “What, what’s wrong with my shoes? Huh?” Lance gagged. “Keith, those are a fashion offence! I should withdraw my friendly truce just for you owning a pair let alone wearing one!”

“My feet my choice.”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind Lance, one belonging to none other than the bespectacled squirt known as Pidge, “Yeah Lance, his feet his rules, unless… “

“What?”

“You have a thing for feet?” A strangled noise came from Lance and he almost collapsed, holding onto a wall to steady him, face pale as a sheet. Keith flushed a deep red and choked, dropping the bag he was holding. Lance stammered out expressions of disgust, outrage and disgust again, Keith just stood there frozen. Pidge, on the other hand, cackled with laughter and headed to the living room, trailing a beaded bag.

When the two had recovered they made their way to the living room, Mrs McClain had chucked a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and the others had already stumbled through the green flames. Lance’s Mum grabbed his and Keith’s bags, and he grabbed Keith’s hand and whispered in his ear. “I’ll show you don’t worry.”

He had noticed Keith’s trepidation and already knew that he didn’t really travel by floo all that much. They stood in the fireplace hand in hand and Lance stated his address, they were sucked into the fire with a sickening pop and spurted out into a wide open plan house, smooth wooden boards underfoot. Muted white and light blue walls were decorated with bleached shells, family photos framed in driftwood and sea-stained rope. A large surfboard adorned a wall above one of three white sofas. A white rug lay under a mahogany coffee table. Massive windows overlooked a beach dotted with palm trees, sporting beautiful white sands and the brightest blue sea. The others were dusting themselves off and smirked to themselves at the sight of a bewildered Keith holding one overexcited Lance’s hand. 

Two small children barrelled into the room and crashed into Lance, knocking him to the floor.

“Tío Lance! Tío Lance!” They chorused in equally cheerful tones, dazing Keith, he had never seen something so adorable happen right in front of him. His grip on Lance’s hand had been broken so he wiped his hands on the shorts that Lance had lent him and stepped to the side, letting the pile of bodies on the floor right themselves. “Did you bring us presents?”

“Chocolate?”

“Which one’s Pidge?”

“Who’s the strange moody boy?”

“Is he your boyfriend Tío Lance?”

“Can we have a Hunk hug?”

The questions stacked on top of each other until Lance had to silence them by somehow producing two ginger nut biscuits from his pocket. As soon as the two were quiet Keith noticed an elderly couple he assumed to be Lance’s grandparents, two older boys who looked rather similar to Lance, just more mature and rugged, a girl who also looked older than Lance but younger than Veronica and a girl holding onto the eldest’s arm who did not look similar to Lance or Veronica at all but shared similar features to the two children so Keith assumed that she was their mother. Lance straitened up, saw them all standing there and smiled wider than Keith ever thought possible.

He ran over, Hunk and Veronica not too far behind, and was enveloped in hugs and peppered with kisses. Keith and Pidge stood back from this family reunion, waiting awkwardly to be noticed. Mrs McClain tottered through the fireplace and duped luggage on the floor. The sudden bang alerted the group of joyous family members and Lance span around, locking eyes with Keith.

“Oh, everyone, this is Keith and Pidge—“ he gestured to them in turn—“and you all obviously know Hunk. Guys, my abuelita and my abuelo, the oldest one in the back with the pretty lady on his arm is Marco, and the pretty lady is Lisa, his wife, then there’s Luis who’s wearing a striking look called ‘topless to show me up’ and then Veronica, you know her, and Rachel my other sis, and finally my munchkin niece and nephew who seem to think my legs are ladders. This one—“ he ruffles the hair of the young boy clinging to his left leg— “is Sylvio, and this one,“ he said, poking the cheeks of the little girl sitting on his foot, “is Nadia, and they are both adorable. Say hi to Keith and Pidge guys.”

The two ran up to them and said hi very enthusiastically. Keith squatted down to say hello to them and Pidge chatted to them about Hogwarts. There were other introductions and commentary in Spanish which the guests couldn’t understand. They managed to catch names, tías, tíos, primas, primos, hermanos and hermanas. According to Lance, ‘when you’re Latino everybody’s your tío, or primo and you meet new family members every visit. Sometimes its hard to distinguish between family and friends.’

After greeting everyone, Lance’s Mum suggested they set up their rooms. Lance showed Hunk and Pidge their shared room, which had a beige carpet, two large beds, each with their own sideboard, an en-suit bathroom and a floor to ceiling window with a balcony. A shell hung over a bed with green and white sheets and a piece of coral hung over the other, decorated with yellow sheets and a flower in a vase on the bedside table.

Apparently, this was the room where Hunk normally stayed but a spare bed had been lugged in for Pidge, and Lance had been asked her favourite colour so they could provide sheets. They were left to unpack and get settled while Lance raced Keith to the top floor. They collided at the top and ran to a blue door with the name ‘Lance’ inscribed in white on it.

The two bursts into a room, a similar size and shape to Pidge and Hunk’s but without a balcony or wall sized window. Instead a smaller, more normal sized window spreading almost wall to wall was in its place, windowsill adorned with various trinkets, window boxes filled with violets. A white wooden bed lay in a corner under the window, its feet decorated with blue waves, sides with shells imbed. It had blue and white wave-patterned sheets and white pillows. A chest of draws stood against the opposite wall; pictures in white frames lay on top and a corkboard covered in polaroids on the wall above. A small cactus sat among the picture frames in a yellow pot, somehow looking immensely proud of itself. A fluffy white rug sat in the middle of the wooden floor.

Keith stopped in his tracks, surprised. He had not expected Lance’s room to look like this. Lance flopped onto his bed, “Sorry, we couldn’t find a bed for you but don’t worry, you can sleep in mine.” Keith short-circuited, had Lance just asked him to sleep with him (not like that you fool, in a friend way)? “Not together, I’ll take the floor,”

Keith managed to stutter out an objection while his brain recovered from the shock, “N-no, I’ll take the f-floor, It’s your bed after all, I insist. I like sleeping on the floor.” Lance began to roll out a bedroll for him, putting a navvy bed sheet on it and dumping a blanket on top. He grabbed one of the pillows from his bed and chucked it at Keith. After a small spat they unpacked their stuff, Lance promising to buy him some summer shirts and offering to let him borrow some of his for the time being.

Lunch was eaten, the rest of the day spent goofing around inside and hanging out on balconies. Lance’s family were sweet and loved to tease each other, Marco made the best iced tea, and Sylvio and Nadia ran around constantly tripping people up.

They spent most of their time in the garden where bright flowers grew, and a weather-beaten trampoline creaked with every bounce. Keith actually learned a lot more about Lance, like he loved violets more than any other flower and had been growing them since he was little, or that he’s been surfing since the age of five and used to take part in competitions, and he’s really ticklish (Pidge vowed to make good use of that information).

He was enraptured by the vastness of love that this family felt for each other, and surprised that Lance was an Uncle (clearly the favourite at that), he was made to feel so at home, but he still felt a bit alien. He had never been around such a large family before and didn’t know how to act, so he was silent or the most part.

Lance somehow always made him talk, and before long he had been roped into playing with Lance’s niece and nephew. They seemed to like him, and he discovered that they liked being picked up and spun around so much of his time was spent doing just that. He loved their giggles, they were so pure and sweet and it made him almost wish that he had younger siblings just so he could hear that laugh more often.

Lance’s Mum cooked with Veronica and Lance’s Grandmother, somehow providing a feast for fifteen people. They ate on a large veranda joined to the house with a pair of glass sliding doors, sitting at quaint wrought iron tables. The evening sun filtered pleasantly through the trees and they drank ice tea ‘till dark.

***

“Your Dad’s not from Cuba, is he?”

Lance was taken aback buy the sudden comment from Keith, they had all decided it was probably time for them to go to bed but Lance and Keith weren’t sleepy so they had been lounging in their room in silence for the past twenty minuets. Keith reading some muggle novel and Lance gazing at his flowers while attempting to play a harmonica he had managed to find under his bed. “No, he’s American. Him and my Mom met at Hogwarts, both had decided to go to school abroad. But Ma’s Cuban, born and bread.” He dropped the harmonica onto the floor. “Oh.”

“They were both into politics, Dad wanted to make a change to the world and Mum hated the Cuban government.”

“Did they move back after they were at Hogwarts?”

“Nah, studied law and politics at some London university, somehow both ended up at the same one. Fell in love, moved to Cuba together and became ‘wizard-muggle politicians’. Y’know, they can be credited with changing the communist government here into a socialist one,”

“Explains the house.”

“Yup,” he sighed. “I’m guessing you don’t want to go into politics?” Ah, Keith, ever observant.

“Yup, but they probably won’t mind that I don’t. Sometimes I just feel under pressure to live up to them and their whole amazing love story thing.” He lay down in bed and rolled to one side. “Turn off the light will you Keith?”

* * *

Time at Varadero was spent in the sun, at least once a day they went down to the beach and swam in the sea. Lance tried to teach Keith to surf but he was awful at it, however after a good weeks worth of coaching with Hunk’s help he was able to stand on the board (and promptly fall off).

On their first day they went into town and got Keith some proper summer clothing, which Pidge found hilarious as he looked so out of his element. An emo in a red shirt decorated by yellow hibiscus flowers, hair tied back with a red ribbon, wearing a shark tooth necklace that Lance had forced him to wear and a violet in his hair looking ready to kill, to Pidge was the peak of comedy. Their third night they went to a street party.

Lance was really in his element and partied the hardest. He took them around while rambling in Spanish to many, many people. Keith wasn’t sure he even knew as many people that Lance talked too. He made them eat many dishes from tables everywhere and snuck a bottle of tequila. Keith wanted to know how a party of this level of organisation at last notice was even possible. Maybe it was just a Cuban thing, or a Latin thing.

He refused to have any alcohol on the account of thinking that it smelled bad. Pidge said she always wanted to try some and took it sparingly, though they all knew she would have the highest tolerance. Hunk only had a little in a margarita, but he stumbled around along with Lance who held onto Keith the entire rest of the party while still leading them around. Lance had the best rhythm Keith had ever seen even though he was kind of drunk. Maybe the tequila would have killed Keith’s nerves by the thought otherwise. Lance insisted they both slept on the floor and Keith only complied because Lance fell asleep within a matter of seconds. They didn’t talk about it afterwards.

They went to a couple after that, but none were quite as eventful. Mrs McClain treated them all as family and took them to a movie in town; they ate popcorn and fought over favourite characters and why the protagonist was a dick.

* * *

Almost too soon Lance’s birthday came around and he was forced to stay home while his friends and relatives took shifts going shopping for presents and spending time with him. Keith, Pidge and Hunk all had a chance to go shopping for presents.

Hunk decided on a stupidly expensive pack of magical facemasks that all had different effects, Pidge settled with a new pair of swimming trunks and an expansive array of sweets and Keith, was stuck. He wanted to get something special but he didn’t know what. He considered asking Hunk and Pidge for help but decided that would possibly be embarrassing and he knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it. He tried to think about all the time he had spent with Lance, stuff they had done together but he was drawing a blank. He thought of just picking a book and stopped in his tracks, a book would be perfect.

Lance often complained to him about not getting the chance to read and no one else seemed to notice how much he loved science fiction and fantasy, so Keith ran to the nearest bookstore and scoured the shelves for the thing he was looking for. He managed to find it, almost tearing it off the shelf. One of his own personal favourites and he had a feeling that Lance would love it. Of course he was never sure but he hoped that this would be good. He also bought him a short book on horticulture and botany, specialising in violets.

It was called something like ‘The compendium and care of the humble viola,’ and Keith thought Lance would like to learn more about his favourite flower. There was one final component to the present, a violet and lavender face cream because he knew Lance would be dammed if he weren’t in possession of at least three different face creams at once.

Blue wrapping paper was purchased in meters and presents wrapped all night. A massive party had been planned, a marquee erected on the beach, blankets, tables, chairs were all lugged onto the sand. A barbeque was set up and streamers and bunting hung along with fairy lights on the marquee. Music of Lance’s choice came from the speakers, mostly Latin music, and lots of Shakira for some reason. Stuff that Keith thoroughly disliked but was willing to put up with for one night. They partied ‘till far too late and the moon shone across the sea making pretty white patterns on the ripples.

Lance had a dance with everyone, and he made sure of it. A waltz with his mother, foxtrot with his father, quick Charleston with Pidge, an excellent salsa with Hunk. He danced with every sibling, niece, nephew, cousin, grandparent until Keith was the only one left refusing to set foot on the dance floor. Lance bounded up to him with eyes full of determination.

“Mullet,” he said almost warningly. Keith knew his mother allowed him a single shot and he was already tipsy. He had no tolerance whatsoever and it was quite amusing. But there was no way he was getting up.

“Lance.”

“Oh? No nickname? You’re no fun,” he complained.

“Are you having a good birthday?”

“Yeah, but it would be a whole lot better if you danced with me.”

“Lance, I told you, I don’t do dancing, I have two left feet.”

“Well thank God I have two right ones,” That managed a suppressed huff of laughter from Keith but the hand raising to cover his smile was caught by slender fingers that pulled him slowly to the dance floor. Lights glittered softly overhead and the music changed to something slower, more instrumental, taking Keith by surprise.

He hadn’t expected Lance to be into this kind of thing but it made sense, he was a romantic. By that point he couldn’t bring himself to protest, he was struck dumb as an arm snaked around his back and started to guide him across the floor.

Lances smile was dazzling, his eyes radiant with pure mirth as they gently floated around the sand. Keith felt his face heating up and he turned away from Lance as they swayed gently side to side, one hand on each other’s backs and another clasped together. His world blurred as he was spun round and dipped. Both boys giggled and far too soon the song ended and they were left in one another’s arms.

Presents were handed round the next morning and Lance practically shone with joy at all the gifts he got. He stopped in his tracks at the present he got from Keith, two books and a small pot fell into his lap. He examined them and smiled. “Horticulture, nice, and some more face cream, but what’s this?” He held up the book that Keith had frantically searched for.

“It’s… one of my favourites, and I thought you might like it.” Lance smile somehow got wider and he gingerly put them in the growing pile of presents. He proceeded to smile for the rest of the day and Keith noticed that he pulled the book open before he fell into a deep sleep. All in all, rather successful, Keith thought, as he drifted in to dreams of dancing and moonlight.

* * *

Eventually, time at Varadero grew to a close, goodbyes were heartily said and promising of shenanigans at Hogwarts haunted sorrowful ears. Hugs were plentiful and frequently given, Mrs McClain hugged everyone before they went their separate ways, Hunk gave massive crushing bear hugs as he cried about not being able to see them for a month, Pidge kicked him in the shin and told him to stop crying, they’ll be together again soon but Keith saw she was looking sad. Even Keith felt a little melancholy as they said their goodbyes.

Soon they were all whisked off to their own homes across London. Keith and Adam spent most of their time watching old black and white movies, staying up to midnight and looking at the stars and reading. Keith also discovered a muggle TV show about conspiracies, it was called X-Files and he watched it avidly. They enjoyed each other’s company and were mostly quiet round the house.

Hunk and his family cooked frequently, ate cheerily and laughed gaily at all times of the day and he really felt like he was home.

Pidge, her Mum and her Dad spent time playing board games and discussing magic theory and what a mess the government had gotten into.

Lance read his new book on violets as well as the other book Keith gave him; it was the start of a series so he would have to buy the next books soon. He tried out his facemasks and new skincare products, strutted around in new clothing and argued with his siblings. He also spent far too much time thinking about the dance he and Keith had shared and his positively dizzying laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to leave feedback on this chap, she loves it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. Per usual I welcome feedback.


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